Chief Jacobson, Rep. DeLauro, Mayor Elicker, and Asst. Chief Ettienne: Show me the money. Nearly a $1 million worth of federal earmarks are en route to the city’s police department — to help pay for a virtual reality driving simulator, an expanded police training center library, and a revived local law enforcement ​“cadet” program. Mayor Justin Elicker, Police Chief Karl Jacobson, Asst. Police Chief Bertram Ettiene, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro detailed that federal funding award and those local spending plans during a Monday afternoon press conference at 200 Wintergreen Ave.Standing in the police department training center’s fitness room, surrounded by intimidatingly heavy workout equipment, DeLauro handed over an oversized check for $963,000 — secured as part of over $16 million in local ​“community project funding,” formally known as ​“earmarks,” that DeLauro’s office first announced in March.According to Jacobson and Elicker, this funding will support:• A new virtual reality driving simulator, designed to help police officers train how to get safely to emergency calls without actually wearing down physical vehicles for practice. Jacobson said that far too many police officer injuries and deaths occur during vehicle crashes while responding to calls for help. This simulator will allow officers to learn how to drive safely to such calls, while doing all the other things that need to be done while driving — including putting on the vehicle’s lights and sirens and answering other urgent calls.• An expanded police training center library. Jacobson said New Haven already has such a library at its Sherman Parkway police building. He said such libraries are required by Connecticut’s Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST). They include not just law enforcement training manuals and other job-specific texts for officers, but also books on a variety of topics designed to be useful for community members, he said. The expanded library will move from Sherman Parkway to Wintergreen Avenue.• A revived ​“cadet” program that will be open for 12- to 18-year-old New Haveners, and, as Jacobson and Ettienne put it, will serve as a sort of local ROTC for local kids who one day, after they turn 21, might want to become a city police officer. They described this as a transitional program between the existing Police Athletic League (PAL) programs, which already serve hundreds of kids, and the testing and training and certification required to become an actual police officer. Ettienne said that local ​“cadets” will learn everything about the daily operations of the police department, and will be uniquely prepared to try out for the department when they turn 21.Elicker and DeLauro added that these funds will also go to support the police department’s ​“FUSUS real-time video and data fusion system,” allowing for the department to receive video footage from privately owned cameras around town where the private operators voluntarily opt in.Along with the recently ratified police union contract — which is now before the Board of Alders for review and a final vote — Elicker described this federal grant as providing a ​“huge help” for supporting community policing, police officer training, and police officer recruitment.Jacobson (right), with Elicker, at Monday's presser.