Record-Level Funding Secured by the Governor Expands Nationally Recognized Initiative to Eight New Police Departments, Four Additional Counties
GIVE Funding Now Supports 28 Police Departments, and District Attorneys' Offices, Probation Departments, and Sheriffs' Offices in 21 Counties Hardest Hit by Gun Violence and Violent Crime
53 Percent Increase in Illegal Gun Seizures (2018 vs. 2022), and Double-Digit Declines in Gun Violence in Communities Currently Participating in GIVE, and in New York City Thus Far This Year
Governor Hochul: "[T]ogether, we will get ahead of the criminals, and let the message be out there: This is a state where we protect our people. We take this responsibility deadly seriously. So be aware, you come to our state, or you live in our state, you want to harm someone with a gun, there will be consequences. You will be caught, you'll be prosecuted, and you'll be incarcerated."
Hochul: "How many times have we looked back and said, 'I wish we had seen the signs they were out there, but no one brought it all together. No one connected the dots'? That's what we're doing here, and it's been successful. So, we prevented people from causing harm to others. The tragedies we prevent, you'll never know them. You'll never know. There's never a story about the plane that lands safely. We're landing a lot of planes safely right here, my friends. And I just said if, I've always said, 'I don't want to be in the crime solving business. I want to be in the crime prevention business.' That's what's going on with the strengthened red flag law."
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced nearly $36.2 million to law enforcement agencies participating in the state's Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative. The record-level funding secured by the Governor in the FY 2024 Budget has allowed the state to expand the nationally recognized initiative to eight new police departments and four additional counties. GIVE funding now supports 28 police departments, and district attorneys' offices, probation departments, and sheriffs' offices in 21 counties outside of New York City hardest hit by gun violence and violent crime. At the same time, Governor Hochul announced a 53 percent increase in illegal gun seizures when comparing 2018 to 2022, and double-digit declines in gun violence in communities currently participating in GIVE, and in New York City, so far this year.
B-ROLL of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
PRESENTATION SLIDES from the event are available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning, everyone. It is great to be here and joined by so many of our local friends. Starting with our Mayor Kathy Sheehan, who has not missed a single event I've done in two and a half years or two years. Bill Keeler, the City of Cohoes we've had a chance to tour and see some wonderful things with the DRI. Ron Kim, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, we've been up there many times, and of course, City of Troy, Patrick Madden, where I frequent the Saturday market.
You're all my friends. I see you often in many in your communities. Also have our district attorney, Bob Carney from Schenectady County. Thank you for joining us, Acting Superintendent Steve Nigrelli and all of our friends in law enforcement.
I thank them for their leadership in this, in protecting the State of New York. Bryan DiGirolamo I'm going to get it right. Bryan, help me out here, Bryan DiGirolamo. I got it. Okay. There we go. Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division of ATF and other partners in government who've joined us. Glad to be back at the New York State Police Academy.
I spent a lot of time here. I also am very privileged to speak at the graduation ceremonies when there's a big sigh of relief on those young people's faces as they finally get through their six months of intensive training. So, we next year we're going to be going from two graduations a year to four, so I'll be very busy with that.
As I've stated from day one as Governor, my number one priority is protecting New Yorkers, keeping them safe. And I'm here to give an update on our progress on combating gun violence across New York. And I'm really proud to stand up here today and say that the numbers are extraordinary. The incidences of gun violence are going down, and a lot of that has to do with the confiscation of illegal guns.
And that is all despite one year ago this week, the Supreme Court's decision to make our State more dangerous and take away the rights of a governor to protect her people from concealed carry weapons. It was a reckless and shocking decision against striking down a century old law that is still hard to comprehend.
The Supreme Court, one of our most previously revered institutions seemed hell-bent on sending us backwards at a time when crime was rising and we're doing everything we can and law enforcement is working so hard every single day. And to have a Supreme Court that is hostile to those interests was indeed shocking just a year ago.
And so, we put millions of people in harm's way with this change in the law. And after the Bruen decision, again, it'll go down in infamy, it's named after our former superintendent. The Bruen case from New York, we knew we had to take matters into our own hands. We could not let the status quo rest, and we said, "We're not going to surrender to this reality."
We're never going to cede our rights to protect our people. And we understood truly what was a moral imperative to act at that time. So, I called the legislature back into session. I pushed for new common sense concealed carry laws, which were passed and went into effect on September 1. We strengthened background checks and required training. We banned concealed carry holders from sensitive locations. And over the last year, we've also been able to uphold the rights of lawful gun owners while getting illegal guns off the streets, keeping guns away from dangerous people, and most importantly, driving down the shootings. And so,in continuance of that effort, I just left a meeting of the members of the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns.
I announced this six months into the job as Governor a year and a half ago, January of 2022. That includes the State Police, local law enforcement from across the State of New York. But most importantly, in the first time ever, we had law enforcement representatives from 13 states as well as NYPD, Boston PD, Quebec and the ATF.
We formed it before when violence was just raging around the State. As I said, it's the first of the kind in the nation. I spoke with ATF Director Steve Dettelbach. He called this Task Force a national model that other regions around the nation should follow. So, I recently invited three more states to join us.
In the dark blue you see Maine, Maryland and Delaware have recently joined the Task Force. So, you look at the corridor that we have, that key I-95 corridor, where so many of the illegal guns flow back and forth. And because I-95 cuts through each of these states, having them on board is really important. That iron pipeline that people talk about, now we have a coordinated effort where people are sharing information in real time and that was not happening before.
So, we're going to continue disrupting those flows of guns. And this Task Forcetalked about something that happened just Friday. Four days ago, State Trooper Richard Albert was patrolling I-88 in Duanesburg when he spotted a car traveling more than 100 miles an hour. He pulled the car over and as he approached a man stuck a gun out the window and fired, hitting him in the arm. Thankfully, Trooper Albert, who I spoke to, is okay and in full recovery, but again, this is something we learned about literally sitting at the funeral for another trooper, Superintendent and I were together and he gets a message last Friday while we were up in Plattsburgh at the funeral of Captain Garrow, who lost his life at age 47 to illnesses he contracted from serving at the site of 9/11.
So while we're going through this experience, Superintendent gets the text sitting next to me that another trooper has been shot. Thank God he's okay. But I wanted everyone to see that this is a sober reminder of all the dangers faced by those in law enforcement every single day. And they show up for work, they answer the call, and I want to thank Trooper Albert and thousands like him for showing up the way they do.
But also underscores the importance of this Task Force. On this table are examples of the illegal guns that have been seized by this Task Force, including the exact same gun that was used to shoot Trooper Albert as witnessed here. It's a nine-millimeter handgun. It has 12 rounds of ammunition, and the picture on the screen is the actual gun that was used. Because it's part of an ongoing investigation we couldn't have it here today, but just imagine the terror in anyone's eyes when they see that gun and still having the courage to stay there and fire back, trying to eliminate the threat. So, it's extraordinary what a member of our team just went through just a few days ago. It's these types of investigations that it's important we have access to the information. Thank you, Superintendent.
That's why we've made record investments in a network of 10 crime analysis centers across the state, including the one right here in Albany that I toured last January. With record funding, we've upgraded these facilities with the most sophisticated ballistic tracking technology. And what this does is it links information that we have to our federal agencies, like ATF and what they're using. That means one thing that's so important, we can process shell casings and check for matches and other crimes faster than ever before. And what used to take a month to do now can be accomplished in 24 to 48 hours. And that's what's going on with that gun as we speak.
We know that this gun was purchased legally in Pennsylvania and brought to New York illegally. And another indicator of our success is not just what on the table, but also our most recent statistics on gun seizures. Let's focus on three buckets, three different places where the guns are being confiscated.
First of all, illegal guns seized directly by State Police and gun seized by - guns seized statewide, and those seized through New York State's Red Flag Law, which you've heard me speak about. Let me just talk about what's going on across the state and how it's impacting shootings in New York State and in New York City.
Statewide, illegal gun seizures are at historic levels. 10,000 up from just 2018, over almost 7,000. Dramatic increase in historic seizures. Now, what I have said, I knew the power of the State Police from my time as Lieutenant Governor. I've been very involved with this. And I knew that we could do even more in the role that we play and to do more policing and to do more direct confiscation of guns.
So last year across New York, all police departments seized over 10,500 illegal firearms. Pre pandemic, that number was 6,400, a 66 percent increase. And also, this Interstate Task Force, this is interstate. This is within our state. We have totally redefined the role of State Police in the battle to get guns off the streets. We have the ability to share information, we can get data in real time, and we're starting to do that as well.
So, let's look at the State Police themselves, what they have accomplished. They went from seizing 517 illegal guns in 2020, and when I became governor and I said, "I know we can do more." These are individuals who are on our highways. They know the signs, they see the vehicles coming up from places like Pennsylvania. We can track people at gun shows watching someone load illegal guns into a trunk and heading up Route 81, and we know exactly where they're going. They're either heading up to Syracuse or they're making a hard right, and they're heading into the Bronx, and that's exactly what was happening.
And now we went from 517 guns in 2020 because of this intentional effort, to 1,429 and 2022, almost three times as many. And in the first half of 2023, you can see from the graph here, we're already outpacing last year's effort. So, through May of this year, State Police have already confiscated 592, and last year, the entire year was 580. So you can see what path we're on to really increase those numbers. Again, a 154 percent increase from back when the number was 233.
But the State Police's impact is being felt beyond New York. They're seizing guns from people coming here from other states. They have made referrals in 225 cases, most importantly, most frequently, Pennsylvania. So data we're getting is being shared to prosecute crimes in other states as well. So it goes both ways.
That while we have 10,000 guns off the streets, it's great progress, it's not the entire story. More work needs to be done. And we didn't stop there either. So last year, in the wake of the tragic Tops shooting in my hometown, we took a close look at our Red Flag Protection Law. It was not being used. I knew it could be better, it could be stronger. So the legislature - we brought them back. We told them, four days after the shooting, I signed an executive order requiring State Police - requiring, now that's the opposite word - requiring State Police to file an extreme risk protection order or ERPO whenever they have probable cause to believe that someone could do harm to themselves or to others.
That was a dramatic shift in the putting the responsibility on State Police to actually use this law that had been on the books. I also pushed some changes into the law. A month later, I signed another package of legislation to bolster our red flag laws. And also, we have now the same requirement for not just State Police, but all police and our district attorneys, and made it possible for medical providers and health providers and educators to all be able to have access to file.
When they see the signs - again, in a classroom, in a hospital emergency room - you know things, you see things, you hear things. And to be able to now have a way to act upon it where you're taking that information you're receiving from an individual and put it in the hands of an individual law enforcement who can take action, that is how we're making a profound difference.
And we also want to make sure that mental health reports are looked at closely before issuing a firearm license as part of the background check. This is something I did as a county clerk for many years, so you get all kinds of data coming in, background checks, mental health checks, I want those mental health reports viewed seriously. What is in there, instead of just making it proforma. Those changes have made a dramatic difference.
Here's the information. Between 2019 and April of 2022, 1,400 ERPOs were filed. Since I signed the executive order last May, there've now been 8,778. 8,778. That's a 612 percent increase - one year. Look at the difference that has made. And of those, these are statewide, and I thank all of our local law enforcement partners, State Police themselves did 743. And what that resulted in was 1,400 guns being confiscated. That's almost two guns per Order of Protection. You can extrapolate that from all the other policing agencies. We don't have the data directly, but I know what the State Police did, and we know that the number is dramatically higher statewide.
So just accounting for the State Police, which is a fraction of the total number. These are hundreds of people - hundreds of people - who had displayed signs, just like we've seen in mass shootings and other people who telegraph on social media or to other people that they're going to do something wrong and harmful.
And so, how many times have we looked back and said, "I wish we had seen the signs they were out there, but no one brought it all together. No one connected the dots." That's what we're doing here, and it's been successful. So, we prevented people from causing harm to others. The tragedies we prevent, you'll never know them. You'll never know. There's never a story about the plane that lands safely. We're landing a lot of planes safely right here, my friends. And I just said if, I've always said, "I don't want to be in the crime solving business. I want to be in the crime prevention business." That's what's going on with the strengthened red flag law.
So, we're having a concrete impact on violent crime - fewer shootings, the shootings are down 15 percent outside of New York City. You can see the bump there where it definitely went up during the pandemic and now, we're trending in the direction. And again, just as context, look where we were in 1993. That was a scary time, and it dropped, continued to drop only the pandemic. Created a spike and now we're sending it back down again. Even in New York City, the numbers are even better. They're down 17 percent since 2021. So, fewer shootings means fewer murders. Murder rate is down 10 percent in New York City and New York State, and it's going down faster in New York, going down in New York faster than any other state. Full stop. That's something to be proud of. It's because we're making more arrests, more convictions in firearm cases - that's the direct correlation. And conviction rates for felony firearm cases are now back to pre-COVID levels. They're back to 50 percent in New York City and 70 percent outside of New York City.
So, we have reason to believe that the 2022 numbers, which is the most recent we have, are not a fluke. We can look at the first half of 2023 and know that we're doing something right. And I think that's quite amazing. Shootings are down, back down to pre pandemic levels and shootings are down 26 percent in New York City.
So, these are good numbers, my friends, because it wasn't that long. We were sitting here watching these numbers creep up and up, and we never knew when we were heading into that 1990s world, which was so terrifying for people living particularly in our urban areas. But we've reversed it, we're downward, and that is the right direction.
So, shootings per day are far lower. Again, approaching the pandemic levels, and this is all very positive. It's not enough. We have to keep up the investments, keep up the commitment, and that is why our State Budget, and I thank the leaders of the legislature for supporting my efforts to really beef up our efforts to invest in public safety and policing. $337 million for programs to respond to and drive down gun violence holistically. And I'm announcing that we had $36 million for Gun Involved Violence Elimination - we call it GIVE. That's six times more than we ever had. Now last year, I remember we were talking about tripling it. This time we now have six times as much as we had at the time. Eight new departments, that'll be 28 departments that'll be active in many more places.
So, it's all about giving the local communities the resources they need as well. I've been in the streets in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany - the major cities, the smaller communities. They're all struggling, and I want them to know that in situations where things are really difficult, like we saw in Rochester and Syracuse last summer in particular, we were on the ground. We literally have State Police patrolling with them. We have all the technology that they've asked for, but we're there to help them as well, because sometimes it's very overwhelming for local governments, and I want them to know they have a strong partner in our state government.
So, we're going to continue all of our outreach, our hotspots, policing, and I will continue doing whatever is necessary. So, again, I want to thank the men and women in the room next door who have gathered. They've come from other states. They are here for the sixth time at my request to gather, share ideas, share information on cases, and together, we will get ahead of the criminals, and let the message be out there: This is a state where we protect our people. We take this responsibility deadly seriously. So be aware, you come to our state, or you live in our state, you want to harm someone with a gun, there will be consequences. You will be caught, you'll be prosecuted, and you'll be incarcerated.
And I want to thank again, the State Police for all the work they've done, more guns off the street, more extreme risk protection orders. And in that sense, we are saving people's lives. So, we're not settling for these numbers. Don't take from this that I'm satisfied because I know we can continue. But we are making great progress and I want to thank everyone involved - our local government officials, our district attorneys, our policing agencies, and all those who are true public servants committed to the common objective that we share, which is to protect the people of the State of New York.
So, with that, I want to say thank you and I'll bring up an individual who is going to share more information.
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