BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — The Buffalo Police Department says gun-related incidents, injuries, and homicide rates are all far below where they were at this point two years ago.
Governor Kathy Hochul appeared in Buffalo Friday morning at Buffalo Police headquarters to showcase the city’s success.
"Buffalo is leading the charge,” declared Hochul. "Buffalo doing a great job.”
“And once you build community confidence in what you've been doing, you get community cooperation,” remarked Pastor James Giles, coordinator, WNY Peacemakers.
Pastor Giles appeared with the governor and other local leaders and law enforcement telling the community a decrease in murders and other violent crimes is really happening here in Buffalo.
The state made a historic investment statewide of $347 million in gun prevention programs.
Governor Hochul says she is using Buffalo as a model to display how gun prevention is working.
Here is how Hochul outlined the crime numbers for homicides and other violent crimes in Buffalo.
“Let's just look at the numbers from January to June. Homicides here are down 62 percent this year, and 65 percent since the summer of 2021 when I took office. That's the largest decrease – again, 65 percent since I became the governor,” Hochul explained.
Hochul said that is the largest decrease since 1985.
@KathyHochul saying homicides and fatal shootings are down in City of Buffalo. @WKBW https://t.co/J3nbgnBxZP pic.twitter.com/tWGLCIMBnx
— Eileen Buckley (@eileenwkbw) July 28, 2023
“From January to June last year, there were 42 homicides. This year, the same period, it’s 16. Fatal shootings are down 73 percent from our peak in 2021. Last year, there were 36 fatal shootings in Buffalo, and we knew 10 in one afternoon. This year there's been 11 total. First half of 2021, 184 shooting victims. Same period last year, 143. This year, it's 73. That's a 60 percent decrease since 2021, the peak of the pandemic. Shooting incidents are down tremendously. 153 shooting incidences in 2021 in Buffalo, 104 the next year, which we are very proud of. And then this year, 63,” explained Hochul. “And more people are alive today in Buffalo as a result of these efforts.”
Mayor Byron Brown said they are very pleased to see this “significant reduction in violent crime”, homicides, and shootings down in Buffalo.
“Gun seizures, seizures of illegal weapons up significantly. And certainly, I want to also credit the great law enforcement partnership that we have here at every level with the Buffalo Police Department, our district attorney's office, our state police, County Sheriff's Office, federal agencies, law enforcement partnership is critical and also our partnership with the community organizations like peacemakers and snug, all working together to make a difference in the reduction in crime in our community,” said Mayor Brown.
Governor Hochul also said that too many guns are coming into the Buffalo community that are not manufactured in New York.
@KathyHochul addressing gun violence. Gov. saying guns continue to come from out of state & need to be stopped at borders. @BuffaloNYPolice @WKBW https://t.co/J3nbgnBxZP pic.twitter.com/m9LywkzR3h
— Eileen Buckley (@eileenwkbw) July 28, 2023
“They’re coming from out of state. And if we can stop them at the border — something I asked our State Police to be very aggressive about, very aggressive — and to literally stop them at the borders or the gun shows where they're being loaded into trunks in Pennsylvania, nearby Pennsylvania, and being brought up to our state and being distributed to people and sold to people and used in violent crimes here in Buffalo and Rochester and all the way down to the City,” noted Hochul.
“We have significantly less people shot. We have significantly less people that have been killed by gun violence, and our officers of the Buffalo Police Department are working very, very hard to bring those numbers down,” commented Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia.
Commissioner Gramaglia says over the last year police have worked to be visible and engaged in the community.
“We established a plan last year that involves our police department being presently visible and engaged. It’s a strong plan, based on community engagement,” described Gramaglia.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn says the work doesn't end by throwing someone in jail.
“I don't come to work every day thinking how many people can I put in jail today? I don't do that. No DA does that. We want our streets safe. We want our community safe, but we want to do it in a fair and just manner, so yes, do we have to put people in jail? Absolutely. But that's on one hand, on the other hand, we can help people we can give people a second chance of third chance,” commented Flynn.
“The district attorney's office is doing something that no district attorney has done before him, and that is working directly with community-based groups. He's working with them to give people a second chance,” reflected Giles.
After the governor's appearance, I caught up with Pastor Giles at his Back to Basic Ministries office.
For years, Giles has been working on the city streets as coordinator of WNY Peacemakers, on the front lines of trying to stop the violence. He says the decrease is really happening.
“So, we know that those numbers are very real that’s being reported and we're very happy to say they're real,” replied Giles.
Giles says state resources have created community engagement and cooperation with law enforcement.
“This will work if we start working together. We’ve been shouting that for years. And just didn't have the resources to kind of implement it,” Giles responded. "You've got community cooperation — that is a huge piece to not only solving crime but getting ahead of them.”
