Cincinnati is asking the federal government for more than $3 million to hire more police officers.

        The grant application, sent Thursday to the U.S. Department of Justice, seeks $3.375 million to hire 45 officers — $75,000 over three years for each new officer. The city should learn if they get it in six to eight weeks.

        The money comes from Justice's Universal Hiring Program, which covers only costs of hiring new officers.

        The city still must pick up the rest of the officers' salaries, plus benefits. That amounts to about $3 million, too, said Officer Tara Newberry, who writes grant applications for the department.

        “It's something we'd really like to have,” Chief Tom Streicher said. “If we don't get it, we'll do what we have to. But this would help.”

        The 45 would be the second batch of the overall 75 new officers first proposed last summer by Councilman John Cranley. He was responding to the escalating violence in the city at the time.

        The 45 likely will be broken down into more than one class, said Ted Schoch, director of the police department's training academy.

        “We're discussing maybe overlapping classes and some other things,” he said. “We need to be careful to keep the classes manageable.”

        Money for the first 30 officers was included by council in this year's budget. Those recruits start their five months of training classes Aug. 19 in what will be among the largest classes the department has held in years, with 52 recruits total.

        The 35 recruits in class now finish July 26.

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