BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The City of Buffalo is modeling a gun violence program after Milwaukee after authorities in that county found success with a “shoot review” initiative.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York JP Kennedy helped locate $229,837 of federal funds from the Project Safe Neighborhood grant to be allocated to the Shoot Review program here in Buffalo.
In Milwaukee, authorities reported a 17% decrease in homicides and a 15% decrease in non-fatal shootings by using this process that brings together local, state, and federal agencies weekly.
Here’s how it works — the task force will look at several month’s of shootings to identify trends in shootings, victims, and suspects.
Every week it will look at reports on all the cases including victims, date, location, victim information, and the suspect case file on hand with authorities.
There will be meetings every Tuesday with Buffalo Police, The Erie County District Attorney’s office, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, The FBI, and the US District Attorney’s office to look at reports compiled with the help of the Erie Crime Analysis Center.
The task force will use advanced technology and data to develop strategies to reduce violence, improve case closure statistics, and help case prosecution.
The task force will be led by Buffalo Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia who said it will be critical their efforts extend past the meeting room.
“There’s two prongs. That second prong which is extremely important… is that community engagement. When we're out there, and we're building trust with our community members, community partners that's when we're going to get our witnesses to come forward,” he said. “We need to take these ‘trigger pullers’ off the street. Our gun defendants, we need to keep them off the street and locked up. That's how we can be safer.”
