Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2024, $153,649)
The Southern District of New York (SDNY) comprises approximately 5.1 million people, in a diverse geographic, ethnic, and socio-economic landscape. Gang activity and gun violence continues to be serious threat with most the district's community violence stemming from drug trafficking and gang activity. Gun violence remains a pressing issue in both the Bronx and Manhattan. Although improvements have been made, the overall numbers are still alarmingly high. In Manhattan, the trend in shooting incidents and victims has shown a gradual decline over the past few years. In 2022, 211 shooting incidents resulting in 255 victims. This decreased in 2023 with 162 incidents and 186 victims. While these numbers suggest progress, they also indicate that gun violence remains a significant concern. The Bronx, on the other hand, has seen a more pronounced decline in gun violence, although the numbers remain high. In 2022, the Bronx reported 408 shooting incidents with 484 victims. This decreased in 2023 to 318 incidents and 377 victims. While the downward trend is encouraging, the high volume of incidents and victims highlights the persistent challenges faced by the Bronx. Addressing both these issues requires a multifaceted approach, including community engagement, improved policing strategies, and addressing socio economic factors that contribute to violence.
SDNY proposes to continue to direct Project Safe Neighborhoods Funds (PSN) funds toward these two Boroughs to assist the City Police Department and its gang task force partners in their efforts to enhance analytical capacity. This ability will significantly enhance the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) current targeted and prioritized gun violence enforcement and intervention efforts. In order to identify chronic violent offenders that are at highest risk for being involved in future shooting incidents, the NYPD created the Gun Recidivist Investigation Program (GRIP). Given the fact that over half of the GRIP subjects have confirmed gang/crew affiliations, the NYPD will focus much more than 30% of the PSN funding to support high-level analytical and technological efforts within the NYC CGIC to inform and drive its gang-related gun violence and gang interdiction efforts within the Bronx and Manhattan.