Crime & Safety
As NYC Shootings Surge, De Blasio Unveils Gun Violence Program
Mayor Bill de Blasio outlined Safe Summer NYC — a three-prong approach to deterring gun violence focused on community, cops and courts.
NEW YORK CITY — A revamped anti-violence effort aims to stop a repeat of last summer in New York City, when shootings hit highs that still linger.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday unveiled "Safe Summer NYC" — a three-prong effort that expands Cure Violence workers, deploys cops to violent areas, creates a justice system task force focused on potential shooters, among other steps.
"Now look, these three pieces — community, cops, courts — these will be transcendent," he said. "I'm absolutely convinced."
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Gun violence in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic hit levels not seen in years, despite an overall drop in crime. Shootings remain much higher this year — and last week there were 250 percent more incidents than the same period in 2020, the New York Post reported.
De Blasio continues to blame the spike on a "perfect storm" of disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic.
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His unveiling of Safe Summer NYC, along with NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison and local district attorneys, represents another bite at the Big Apple's shooting problem.
Last year, he unveiled an anti-gun violence program that leaned heavily on community programs and targeted police deployments.
Safe Summer NYC appears to follow the same blueprint.
De Blasio said the city will double its Cure Violence workforce to 650 workers and expand the program to at least 31 sites. Another program that'll be doubled is Summer Youth Employment, which will expand to 2,000 slots throughout the year, he said.
NYPD officers, in addition to shifting 200 administrative cops onto patrol and deploying police to 100 blocks with the highest rates of gun violence, will expand gun buyback programs, Harrison said.
"We want people to come forward," he said. "We have all types of hotlines that we want people to utilize. One of them being a gun-stop hotline, that number is going to be 866-GUN-STOP. If anybody has any information about an illegal gun out there, utilize that hotline, and you could be compensated up to $1,000 for a firearm that's recovered."
De Blasio also announced the NYC Joint Force To End Gun Violence — a group that pairs city agencies, the NYPD and local district attorneys' offices.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said resources will be focused on people who drive violent crime.
Less than 1 percent of city dwellers drive 60 to 70 percent of street violence, he said.
"We know if we can focus in on that group of people who are terrorizing our city that we can have safety," he said.
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