Crime and Gun Violence Reduction Initiative

Reduction of crime and gun violence through the effective delivery of police services.  This will be achieved through the integration of a Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) through the monitoring of directed police patrols.  In 2022, the department responded to 101,073 calls for service.

The RTCC will allow the department the ability to capitalize on a wide and expanding range of technologies for efficient and effective policing. This technology will allow officers to respond quickly, or even immediately, to crimes in progress or to those that recently occurred. The new technologies available allow a police department access to respond to crime events more efficiently, more deliberately, with improved operational intelligence, and with a proactive emphasis on officer, citizen, and community safety. 

Over the past few years, the city of Providence has seen an increase of crime originating from individuals utilizing or selling illegal weapons, illegal drugs, or terrorizing the community on all-terrain vehicles.  In 2022, there were 255 illegal guns seized off the streets of Providence and 194 individuals arrested on firearms charges.  With regards to the ATV’s, the violators use these vehicles for the ability and agility to elude Law enforcement as well as the ability to conceal their identify and store illegal weapons and narcotics.  Operators of these ATV’s have surrounded and assaulted several other motorists on our public streets. From a strategic perspective, the Department continues to deploy targeted enforcement patrols in known “hot spot” areas and in high crime neighborhoods; however, budgetary restrictions make the reliance on federal grant funding for this purpose a vital component.