Citizen Portal
Sign In

Housing Committee forwards $13,900 expansion to the Project Safe Neighborhoods grant after police cite arrests and large drug seizures

Lawrence City Council Housing Committee · February 10, 2026

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Lawrence Police presented results from Project Safe Neighborhoods patrols and operations and the committee voted to send a request to expand PSN funding by $13,900 to the full council; officers said the grant supports extra enforcement that led to hundreds of arrests and multi‑kilogram drug seizures during recent grant periods.

The Housing Committee recommended that the full council approve a $13,900 expansion to the Lawrence Police Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) subgrant with the Massachusetts State Police.

Rosa Shepard, Director of Support Services for LPD, and Sgt. Joe Veil told councillors the PSN partnership supports targeted street enforcement, undercover investigations and joint operations with state police. Sgt. Veil summarized enforcement results for recent grant periods: "In a 3‑month span over those last 3 years... we executed 525 arrests. We seized 32 firearms, approximately 20,000 grams of fentanyl, and approximately 11,000 grams of cocaine." He said those enforcement actions are above and beyond regular patrols and depend on PSN funding for extra manpower and joint deployments.

Councilors asked for results data and whether the grant-funded activities led to measurable public-safety improvements; Sgt. Veil said the operations resulted in arrests, cleared outstanding warrants and seized drugs, firearms and cash. The committee voted to send the grant expansion with a favorable recommendation to the full council.

Next steps: the requested expansion will go to the full council for appropriation approval; police said they will continue to provide outcome data to justify continued partnership.