Funds For Hudson Valley Law Enforcement In NY Gun Violence Initiative

NEW YORK — Law enforcement agencies in most of the Hudson Valley and on Long Island will receive $4.5 million in 2022 under New York state's Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative.

GIVE supports 20 police departments in 17 counties that account for more than 80 percent of the violent crime that occurs in New York State outside of New York City. They are Albany, Broome, Chautauqua, Dutchess, Erie, Monroe, Nassau, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Rensselaer, Rockland, Schenectady, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester.

District attorneys' offices, probation departments, sheriffs' offices and other partners in those counties also receive funding through the initiative.

"The collaboration of all these agencies has reduced gun violence in Orange County," District Attorney David M. Hoovler told Patch.

Overall, the new state budget has $18.2 million for GIVE in 2022, which is the largest state investment in the program since its inception in 2014.

Hudson Valley

• Dutchess County: The Poughkeepsie (city) Police Department, and Dutchess District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department will share $343,669.
• Orange County: The Newburgh (city) and Middletown police departments and county District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department will share $848,513.
• Rockland County: The Spring Valley Police Department, and county Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department will share $107,146.
• Ulster County: The Kingston Police Department and county District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department will share $240,320.
• Westchester County: The Yonkers and Mount Vernon police departments and county District Attorney’s Office, Department of Public Safety and Probation Department will share $1,080,968.

Long Island

• Suffolk County: The Suffolk County Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office and Probation Department will share $993,861.
• Nassau County: The Nassau County and Hempstead police departments, District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department will share $861,743.

In most cases, the bulk of the money goes to the police departments where gun-involved crime is highest.

For example, most of the funding that comes to Rockland County through GIVE goes to the Spring Valley Police Department.

"The Sheriff’s Office provides support to the Spring Valley Police Department in any way we can to help reduce gun violence there," Rockland Sheriff Louis Falco told Patch. "The Sheriff’s Office assists by providing crime analysis, intelligence sharing, and additional officers and resources for targeted enforcement initiatives, based on crime trends."

Westchester County's Department of Public Safety receives enough through the grant to partially pay for a detective assigned to the Real Time Crime intelligence center, who serves as a “field intelligence officer” to coordinate with Yonkers and Mount Vernon police on gun violence and gather information used to support GIVE initiatives.

"We use a greater amount from our own budget to work on gun violence, drivers of violence and investigations like the 'ghost gun' investigation that we highlighted near the end of last year," said spokesman Kieran O'Leary. SEE: 100+ Firearms Seized Following Ghost Gun Investigation

In the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, the GIVE grants are used in areas of gang violence, gun-related homicides and shootings, including support for:

• a full-time criminal investigator who works directly with Yonkers & Mount Vernon Police Departments
• a full-time senior crime analyst who identifies all gun crimes, ballistics work, data, tracking
• a full-time ADA Deputy Bureau Chief from the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau who works with the VCEB Chief
• a full-time Senior ADA assigned to VCEB overseeing firearm cases and gang-related violent felonies, felony weapon and gang assaults in Yonkers and Mount Vernon
• a part-time ADA in VCEB overseeing community relations and outreach for GIVE projects with Mount Vernon and Yonkers SNUG programs, coordinating violence prevention and reduction initiatives

In some cases, federal funding is another supplement.

"We have had the assistance of our Federal partners in combatting the gun violence epidemic in the City of Newburgh," Hoovler said. "Through these continued efforts, we call upon the City’s elected and appointed officials and residents to continue in a renewed spirit of cooperation to bring the entire community together to stop the violence, and to work with law enforcement to bring to justice those using guns to hurt or kill others."