LANSING - Michigan State Police announced that they were awarded over $7 million in federal grants from the Department of Justice and District Attorney of New York.

This grant will be used in 7 different projects for public safety, including sexual assault evidence kits, combat human trafficking, reduce heroin and prescription opioid abuse, improve criminal history records and conduct sex offender enforcement in Michigan.

Locally in the Lansing area, Michigan State Police would mostly focus on using the grant in anti-heroin project, since heroin abuse was a rising problem in Michigan for the last ten years.

"The main focus of that project is hiring some additional drug intelligence analysts in Michigan Intelligent Operation Center that's here in State Police, and they are gonna work with our multi-jurisdictional drug teams to investigate heroin networks and dealers," said Matt Opsommer, the Grant Coordinator of Michigan State Police.

Michigan State Police also stated that they are excited about all these new projects and will seek out federal funding opportunities to improve public safety in Michigan.