GIVE Initiative Builds On More Than A Decade Of Crime-Fighting Successes Through Operation IMPACT and is said to makes New York safer.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says 17 counties will compete for more than $13 million to fund efforts to reduce firearm-related crimes, shootings, and homicides through the state’s new Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative. The initiative is designed to build upon the crime-fighting successes those jurisdictions experienced while participating in Operation IMPACT.
Like IMPACT, GIVE will target 17 jurisdictions upstate and on Long Island that account for more than 80 percent of crime reported in the state outside New York City. GIVE will refine those jurisdictions’ focus, targeting additional reductions in shootings and homicides by building on information sharing and partnerships among law enforcement but also engaging the community in the fight against gun violence.
Violent crime was down 7.5 percent in those 17 jurisdictions in 2013, as compared to 2012, and down nearly 12 percent when the 10-year average (2003-2012) is compared to 2013. However, firearm-related homicides increased 4 percent in those jurisdictions, with 124 people killed by gun violence in 2013 compared to 119 in 2012.
The state Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) has issued a competitive request for assistance (RFA) and in their response to the RFA, participating jurisdictions must develop a plan to promote integrated, evidence-based strategies to reduce gun violence that include four core elements:
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People – targeting known offenders and people considered responsible for the most gun violence in a community;
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Places – targeting “hot spots” in a community that have been shown to be the most prone to gun violence;
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Alignment – aligning and coordinating efforts with other violence intervention groups working in the community, such as “violence interrupters” and other street outreach work; and,
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Engagement – bringing stakeholders and the community as a whole together to work toward reducing gun violence.
In each county, partnerships developed through IMPACT among the primary police department, district attorney’s office, sheriff’s office and probation department, along with any secondary agencies, not-for-profits and other local government agencies, will continue to be led by the primary police department chief and district attorney. Those partnerships must be expanded to include community-based efforts aimed at preventing violence.
The role of crime analysis and the five DCJS-funded Crime Analysis Centers, located in Albany, Broome, Erie, Monroe and Onondaga counties, also will be expanded, as those centers will provide jurisdictions with critical information about where gun violence is happening and who is committing it so that those jurisdictions can better use intelligence and data to deploy police resources and target emerging crime.
DCJS will host a statewide conference on Tuesday, Feb. 18 in Albany for the following counties, which can compete for funding through GIVE: Albany, Broome, Chautauqua, Dutchess, Erie, Monroe, Nassau, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Rensselaer, Rockland, Schenectady, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester. The conference will be held to familiarize communities with how GIVE will work and will include presentations from nationally-recognized experts in the field of violence reduction strategies.
Responses to the RFA will be due in late March with grants expected to be awarded sometime in early spring.
The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (www.criminaljustice.ny.gov) is a multi-function criminal justice support agency with a variety of responsibilities, including law enforcement training; collection and analysis of statewide crime data; maintenance of criminal history information and fingerprint files; administrative oversight of the state’s DNA databank, in partnership with the New York State Police; funding and oversight of probation and community correction programs; administration of federal and state criminal justice funds; support of criminal justice-related agencies across the state; and administration of the state’s Sex Offender Registry.