BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that five cities, including Buffalo, will be a part of a new initiative to help police and prosecutors solve non-fatal shootings. The program also aims to prevent retaliatory gun violence.
Police departments and county district attorneys' offices in Buffalo, Rochester, Schenectady, Troy and Utica will share $866,564 in state funding.
For Buffalo this breaks down to $248,970 for the police department and $68,482 for the Erie County District Attorney.
The funding will go towards implementing evidence-based approaches to help investigations. These will be modeled on projects in Newburgh and Utica.
"As we work to reduce gun violence, it is critical that we solve non-fatal shootings and prevent retaliation in the form of additional gun violence," Hochul said.
"We know that when these crimes are left unsolved, retaliation can turn deadly. This funding provides police and prosecutors the resources they need to solve non-fatal shootings, prevent retaliation and reduce overall gun violence."
The funding will continue through the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative. All five cities receiving funding were among the 20 municipalities that participated in the GIVE initiative.
"As we continue to see significant decreases in shootings and violent crime here in Buffalo, we thank Governor Hochul's continued assistance and commitment to saving lives in Buffalo and all of New York. The funding provided here will help our department bring to justice those individuals driving gun violence in our community, utilizing a proven data driven approach," Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia said.
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