Strengthening Prevention and Enforcement of Violent Crimes

The Ellicottville Police Department and the Salamanca Police Department are in the southern tier of western New York.  Both are small departments located in rural areas with significantly higher poverty rates than the rest of the county.  The area has several attractions including popular ski resorts, annual festivals, cannabis dispensaries, and a large casino that draw thousands to the area each year.  With the influx of visitors, the area has experienced an alarming increase in violent crimes.  With the limited staffing, technological capabilities, and financial limitations of both departments, these violent crimes have posed a significant challenge. The Violent Crime Reduction Project is a coordinated effort between the Ellicottville Police Department and the Salamanca Police Department.  The project takes a dual approach to combating violent crime by strengthening both prevention efforts and enforcement. 

Prevention efforts will be bolstered through community engagement.  Activities will include regular community meetings, gatherings, raffles, increased social media messaging, juvenile outreach activities and more.  Enforcement activities will rely on intelligence-led policing to identify hot-spot areas during specific times and events for additional patrols, bicycle patrol, foot patrol, and plain clothes patrol.  Enforcement will also be bolstered through additional officer training.  Officers will be provided the opportunity to expand their skill set on topics such as use of force, police bicycle patrol, crime prevention through environmental design, verbal de-escalation, digital evidence processing, and sexual assault investigations.  Lastly, the lack of ability to process digital evidence has been a hindrance for both departments.  With the addition of digital evidence processing technology, investigations will result in stronger cases for successful prosecution of violent crimes.