COLUMBUS (WJW) — A big announcement has come from the governor’s office Monday afternoon.
Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted held a press conference to talk about a proposal to give hundreds of millions in grant funding money to Ohio police, state troopers and other first responders.
The plan is to give the organizations $250 million, with $75 million of that going to first responder wellness. Members of the general assembly helped come up with this proposal, DeWine said.
“This is clearly not the time to defund the police,” DeWine said. “This is time to fund the police, and fund them in a new a creative way that helps them protect us against the violent offenders.”
The money is supposed to be used to help these organizations “combat violent crime, recruit the next generation of first responders, and enhance wellness resources specifically for peace officers, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and others,” the governor’s office said in a previous statement.
“We need to protect [police], so they can protect us,” DeWine said Monday.
The money would be divided up on an application basis for communities to use in the best way possible for them.