The Invest to Protect Act of 2025 creates a federal grant program to help small and medium-sized police departments across the country. The program gives money to local police agencies with fewer than 175 officers—including city, county, and tribal law enforcement—to improve their training and keep officers on the job.

Police departments can use grant money for several things: training officers in de-escalation (how to calm situations without using force), handling domestic violence calls, responding to active shooters, and dealing with people experiencing mental health crises or substance abuse issues. Departments can also use the money to pay bonuses to attract new officers or keep experienced ones from leaving, cover overtime costs for training, help officers pay for graduate degrees in mental health or social work, and provide mental health services and counseling to officers dealing with trauma or stress.

The program requires police departments to apply through a simplified process that shouldn't take more than two hours to complete, with help available from the Department of Justice. Departments that receive grants must report how they spent the money and what results they achieved. The government will audit grant recipients to prevent waste and fraud, and departments that misuse funds will be barred from getting future grants. Congress has authorized up to $50 million per year for this program from 2026 through 2030.