In May 2023, the City Council approved the submission of a grant application for the Palm Bay Police Department to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Community Policing Development (CPD) De-Escalation Training Grant program. CPD funds may be used to develop the capacity of law enforcement to implement community policing strategies by providing guidance on promising practices through the development and testing of innovative strategies; building knowledge about effective practices and outcomes; and supporting new, creative approaches to preventing crime and promoting safe communities.

On November 2, 2023, the Palm Bay Police Department was awarded $150,000 through the FY23 Law Enforcement Agency De-Escalation Grants -Community Policing Development under Award# 15JCOPS-23-GG-02551-PPSE. Grant funds will be utilized to implement an agency-wide comprehensive approach to de-escalation through training efforts including implicit bias and duty to intervene via a virtual reality (VR) training platform. This platform will be an added resource to our already established de-escalation training, such as Verbal Judo L.E.A.D.S (Law Enforcement Active De-escalations Strategies) and other dynamic scenario trainings. As an added benefit to the community-at-large, this platform will also be available to those agencies who use the Palm Bay Police Department's training facilities.

The award cycle for this grant is October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2025.