The East Lansing Police Department could lose grant money, putting programs such as community policing in jeopardy.

The department has received roughly $925,000 in grants since 1995, providing the city’s blue with an additional 10 road patrol officers.

But proposed budget cuts by the federal government would eliminate 90 percent of the funding for the program Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows said. “We’ve utilized these programs to add officers to staff,” he said. “In the future, we may have to cut back the number of police officers. As people retire we’ll keep current staff numbers.”

All of the East Lansing’s 45 road patrol officers are community policing officers. Community policing is a concept that allows residents to become familiar with the officer assigned to their area.

The federal government provides $1.05 billion for the community policing program, which includes school resource officers, safe schools initiatives and technology deployment. Under the federal plan, the funding would be reduced to $65.6 million. The three-year grants had provided the department $25,000 for each new officer.

The money would be transferred to the Homeland Defense Program, Meadows said.

The defense program is a federal program that works to prepare local and state agencies to react to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction and acts of terrorism.

East Lansing police Capt. Juli Liebler said the department also has used the money to install laptop computers in patrol cars and hire a records clerk.

“I don’t think we’ll lay anybody off,” Liebler said. “But we may not fill some positions when others leave.”

Liebler said after each grant expires the department has been able to pick up leftover expenses.

But she said the decrease in federal funding would most likely prevent the department from increasing its staff.

That staff already took a hit in January, when the city council cut $793,000 from its budget. Some of those dollars have been pulled from the police department, which had been using the money to pay for overtime work.

East Lansing police Lt. Kevin Daley said the loss of federal funding would hurt the department, but it’s already seen the impact as it lost an officer last year who it couldn’t replace.

Daley said even without the funding the department will continue to provide good protection.

“It saves a large chunk of money for the city,” he said. “But we will stay with community policing - we are sold on it.”

That’s something some business owners are glad to hear.

Trisha Riley, owner of Harper’s Restaurant & Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave., and chairwoman of the Downtown Development Authority, interacts with community police officers by her business on a daily basis.

“I think any cutback on any number of officers would reduce the type of service they provide,” she said. “I would hate to see any changes in the department.”

Riley said the police provide training programs that help employees check for fake IDs.

“They are helpful in all aspects of running your business,” she said. “Not just in safety, but in training and good communication.”

While effects on staffing would be minimal, Liebler said cutting grants for technology, which are under the COPS program, would affect the department.

Liebler said the department had been looking into a crime-mapping program, which would allow officers to pinpoint where crimes recur and then try to find a solution.

“The bigger impact would be future technology improvements,” she said. “Things of that nature that we might not otherwise be able to afford, this program would have given us the opportunity to do that.”

Councilmember Bill Sharp, who once served on the city’s blue, said he hopes the department’s funding gloom changes.

“As a former police officer, if they are starting to cut back on the federal funding, which we have used wisely, it kind of makes me a little unhappy,” he said.

Sally Silver, a board member of the Bailey Community Association, said community policing officers have helped stabilize East Lansing’s neighborhoods.

“You can approach them directly, and they will talk to you if you are having problems with neighbors,” she said. “I don’t think we want to become a less hospitable place. We want to maintain what we have.”