Suffolk Police Awarded $500K Grant To Combat Gang Violence

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY – The Suffolk County Police Department has received a $500,000 grant through the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative to reduce gun and gang-related violence in high crime areas, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday.

Crime analysis has identified several street gangs, including MS-13,Bloods, and Crips, which have been responsible for gang and gun crime in “hot spot”communities in Suffolk County.

The PSN project has three initiatives:

• Use “hot spot” policing to coordinate and narrow the focus of intervention strategies in theses "hot spot" communities including Wyandanch, North Amityville, Central Islip, Brentwood and Huntington Station
• Target the small number of persons responsible for large amount of violent crimes
• Provide alternatives to gang and criminal activity through mentoring and truancy programs, including the Brentwood Youth Recovery Initiative that was started in response to the murders of Brentwood High School students Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas allegedly by MS-13 gang members.

According to Sessions, the initiative is the "centerpiece" of the overall crime reduction strategy.

“Taking what we have learned since the program began in 2001, we have updated it and enhanced it, emphasizing the role of our U.S. Attorneys, the promise of new technologies, and above all, partnership with local communities," he said. "With these changes, I believe that this program will be more effective than ever and help us fulfill our mission to make America safer.”

Suffolk Police say the efforts are part of the department’s ongoing, multi-pronged gang eradication strategy, launched in September 2016 with a particular focus on Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, following the murder of the two girls.

“The Suffolk County Police Department and its law enforcement partners have implemented an extremely aggressive strategy to combat gang activity, reduce gun violence and eradicate MS-13 from our communities,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy D. Sini said. “This grant will further those efforts."

According to police, a total of 17 of the 45 homicides that occurred in Suffolk County since 2016 are believed to be linked to MS-13.

Since the launch of the initiative, the Suffolk County Police Department has made more than 265 arrests of more than 190 individual MS-13 gang members and has worked in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security to detain more than 100 additional MS-13 members.

“The Project Safe Neighborhoods grant will strengthen the Suffolk County Police Department’s efforts to identify, arrest and prosecute those offenders responsible for doing the most harm in communities plagued by gang-related violence, as well as support prevention programs for youths who are at risk for gang recruitment,” Acting United States Attorney Bridget Rohde said. “This Office is committed to helping communities develop resiliency against gang recruitment so as to diminish gangs, their number and strength, as well as to continuing our prosecutive efforts directed at those who choose the wrong path and engage in gang violence.”