Gov. Cuomo Appropriates $13.3 to Target Gun Violence

2nd Amendment – R2KBA Authors S.H. Blannelberry This Week
The SAFE Act was an utter disaster, will GIVE be any better?  (Photo: AP)

The SAFE Act was an utter disaster, will GIVE be any better? (Photo: AP)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that the state will appropriate $13.3 million to the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative.

“This administration has worked tirelessly to combat gun violence in New York and prevent the needless tragedy that comes with it,” said Cuomo, who was also the force behind the controversial SAFE Act.

“Through the GIVE initiative, we are giving law enforcement agencies more resources necessary to fight gun violence in our streets in order to save lives and make communities across this state safer,” he continued.

The money will be split up amongst 17 participating counties and will be used by law enforcement departments in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Hempstead, Jamestown, Kingston, Middletown, Mount Vernon, Nassau County, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Spring Valley, Suffolk County, Syracuse, Troy, Utica and Yonkers.

“New York State stands alone in our commitment to funding evidence-based efforts to combat gun violence and our corresponding commitment to providing comprehensive, hands-on training from nationally recognized experts,” said Michael C. Green, executive deputy commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

“Funding is critical, but it is equally important to provide agencies with information and resources so they can implement proven strategies as intended,” Green added. “We remain committed to working with our GIVE partners to help save lives and look forward to providing additional training as we move ahead with the second year of GIVE.”

Those “evidence-based” strategies include:

  • Hot-spots policing, which uses data such as incident reports, calls for service and other information about areas of persistent criminal activity, allowing agencies to focus their resources in areas where crime is more likely to occur in order to target, reduce and prevent it.
  • Focused deterrence, in which law enforcement identifies chronic offenders and targets them for enhanced attention, enforcement and prosecution. Also key to the approach is a partnership among law enforcement agencies, community groups and social services organizations, which join together to communicate directly with offenders, outlining clear consequences for continued criminal behavior.
  • Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), which identifies how buildings, vacant lots, traffic patterns and other environmental factors in a neighborhood may influence criminal activity; and
  • Street outreach workers, who work in specific communities to interrupt cycles of violence or prevent retaliation. The strategy also includes case managers, whose role is to connect individuals involved in violence with resources to help them change their behavior.

The GIVE money starts July 1, 2015 and continues until June 30, 2016. Agencies are eligible for a one-year extension. Money will be used to fund personnel, including prosecutors crime analysts, and will also be used for overtime and equipment.

Gov. Cuomo's approval rating keeps sinking...  Could it have anything to do with his anti-gun position?  (Photo:

Gov. Cuomo’s approval rating keeps sinking… Could it have anything to do with his anti-gun position? (Photo: Capital

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  • Larry Koehn June 6, 2015, 1:21 pm

    I don’t live in NY thank God but some wealthy New Yorker that is wealthy and cares about freedom ought to put up 13.3 million to unelecte this moron. Whatever is wrong with the people of New York that they think laws that only affect the law abiding will stop gun violence?

  • MSG John Laigaie June 1, 2015, 9:54 am

    Street outreach workers, who work in specific communities to interrupt cycles of violence or prevent retaliation.

    They used to call these people “Policeman”.

  • Mark N. May 29, 2015, 1:02 am

    How can there be “evidence based strategies” to reduce or eliminate a nonexistent condition? There is no such thing as “gun violence,” there is violence committed by violent people using guns. Stricter penalties will not reduce crime, only enforcing the penalties that exist, which is what prosecutors should be doing anyway, rather than plea bargaining he penalties away..

  • Al May 28, 2015, 10:12 pm

    This is just more “feel good” legislation aimed at throwing a bone to a demoralized law enforcement community. If you really want to bring down the crime wave you need to do several of the following:
    – Reinstate the traditional family structure with a male breadwinner and female homemaker: Fatherless households are the breeding ground for children without guidance: Loud, vulgar, ill mannered hostile children without discipline destroy their only hope of advancement: The school system.
    – Rebuild our manufacturing base to create jobs in New York State – that will hire part-time workers and summer job applicants (the most at-risk age group).
    – Instill in children a moral code of conduct: A set of rules: It doesn’t have to be Biblical (though religion used to be the stabilizing influence – now unpopular, considered outmoded and drowned out by licentious activism and). I remember every ‘Courageous Cat’ cartoon imparted the message: “Crime doesn’t pay!” We don’t hear this message anymore; or ANY message praising upstanding citizenship. The result is a feral youth lost in a world of moral relativity and immediate gratification: Denim and hormones. Further destroying the family and it’s stabilizing influence.
    Without addressing the above, the future of our inner city youth will be drug deals and gang-membership. And of course, more shootings, more unrest and more of the same failed attempts we’ve seen for decades. I am not optimistic anything will get better. New York will ultimately be like Chicago or Detroit.

    • Methadras June 1, 2015, 5:58 pm

      How do you plan to do any of this? you are going to ask the state to implement these ideas? The very state that has brought us to this point?

  • Will Drider May 27, 2015, 2:29 pm

    I find it odd that the listed “Strategies” never use the word gun buzz word!
    It does here: http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/impact/index.htm
    As far as Policing goes there is nothing new here.

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