When the Department of Justice announced its grant funding through the COPS program this week, neither the Maine State Police nor any of the state's county sheriff's departments made the cut.

In fact, nationally and in Maine there were far more losers than winners in this round of grants, though technically the applications that didn't get funded are classified as pending in case the Community Oriented Policing Services program receives another infusion of cash next year.

The funding decisions left some agencies puzzled and disappointed.

"We saw this as an opportunity to really do some good work in Maine," said Public Safety Commissioner Anne Jordan. "Obviously, so did a lot of other agencies across the country."

The State Police had sought five troopers to bolster an agency that has not added a trooper's position since 1984.

"For what we cover, the rural areas, the population has just exploded," said Sgt. Michael Edes, president of the Maine State Troopers Association. "For us not to get any people, we were pretty taken aback by it."

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office had requested funding for two deputies, positions already approved by the county commissioners but frozen because of the economic downturn.

"I really thought we were going to get two positions," said Chief Deputy Kevin Joyce. "I kind of thought I should have asked for a few more."

The competitive program was designed to use economic stimulus money to create and preserve jobs and enhance agencies' community policing programs.

The federal department assigned points to each application, with half based on an agency's fiscal need and half on its crime rate and the community policing goals of the grant-funded positions.

The grant program was more lucrative than earlier COPS grant funding, which offered a gradually diminishing amount of support for positions that the communities were obligated to maintain.

This program funded the entire pay and benefits for officers for three years with departments agreeing to pick up at least the fourth year.

That may explain why there were $8.3 billion in requests from 7,300 agencies nationwide, competing for just $1 billion in funding.

Maine, which has one of the country's lowest crime rates and smaller populations, received the minimum amount: $5 million.

Sixty-three Maine police agencies submitted grant applications. The program funded 31 officers in 17 jurisdictions.

Bangor, which received four officers under the program, scored low on fiscal need but high on community policing for a total score of 37.07. It was the lowest score of those funded.

The Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department scored 34.86 and just missed the cut, along with a number of Cumberland County communities: South Portland, Scarborough, Windham and Freeport. Sheriff's departments in Cumberland, Kennebec, York and Hancock counties were further down the list.

One reason the regional sheriff's departments and State Police faced a challenge is the program's emphasis on traditional community policing, which rural agencies aren't able to do as well as urban departments, said Jordan.

"When I have a trooper covering nine or 14 communities, given the size of the patrol area as well as the number of calls they have to respond to – they can have three, four, five calls backed up waiting for a response – you can't stop and chat and do some of the more traditional big city views of community policing," she said. "Sheriffs' offices face the same kind of challenges."

Portland Police Chief James Craig, whose department received grant funding for six officers, said he plans to assign them to foot beats in the traditional community policing model. The city scored third highest in the assessment.

The community with the highest score was Fryeburg, population about 3,300.

Chief Philip Weymouth said the department only...