Hochul touts lower gun violence despite public perception of high crime

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) —According to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, shootings dropped by 28% in 2024 compared to 2023. She owed the decreasing numbers to the hard work of police departments, specifically highlighting Long Island, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Yonkers as taking major strides to reduce gun violence .

The 28% number comes courtesy of 28 local police departments in localities outside of New York City that take part in the state’s Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative. They are Amherst, Albany, Auburn, Binghamton, Buffalo, Cheektowaga, Elmira, Greece, Hempstead, Ithaca, Jamestown, Kingston, Lackawanna, Middletown, Mount Vernon, Nassau County, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Spring Valley, Suffolk County, Syracuse, Troy, Utica, Watertown, and Yonkers.

From January to August 2023, these spots in New York saw 578 total shootings that caused injuries or deaths. During that same time in 2024, they’ve only seen 417 so far. The number of people shot also decreased from 698 to 533 during those times, representing a 24% drop. However, these GIVE statistics doesn’t account for noncriminal shootings like an accidental discharge or justifiable homicide.

Syracuse had a a 26% decrease, Rochester and Suffolk County both fell 39%, Nassau County saw 40%, Utica dropped by 47%, and Yonkers led with a whopping 56% fewer shootings. Hochul said that sustained investment from her administration fueled the reduction in gun violence in these communities.

Twenty-one counties outside of New York City feature GIVE communities. In the city, the NYPD also reported a 12% reduction, with 602 incidents in the first eight months of the year, compared to 682 in the first eight months of 2023.

“Public safety is my No. 1 priority, and protecting New Yorkers and their communities is the foundation of all our efforts,” Hochul said on Wednesday in a written statement accompanying the announcement. “Our strategies for tackling gun violence are proving effective, but our work is never finished.”

“The city and state have to continue making targeted investments in cure-violence efforts,” read a statement from Assemblymember Latrice Walker on the 28% figure, which has remained stable since at least June. “We can’t rest on our laurels and think that gun violence is a thing of the past. But, yes, the numbers are absolutely encouraging. The work must continue.”

Delaware County Sheriff Craig DuMond, President of the New York State Sheriffs’ Association, responded to Hochul’s announcement. He said that they appreciate the drop in shootings, but that, ever since bail reform took effect in 2019 , judges don’t have the power they need to detain dangerous suspects.

“The line of duty murder of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller last March was a tragic illustration of how radical bail legislation enacted in Albany jeopardizes the lives of police officers and the public at large,” DuMond said. Diller died in Queens in March when the passenger of a car he’d pulled over shot him.

Police arrested both the suspected shooter in that case and the driver of the car. When Diller was shot and killed, the driver was out on bail, though the suspected shooter was not, and both had extensive criminal histories.

Hochul announced the updated data on shootings just days after the FBI released violent crime figures for 2023 nationwide, as well as in New York. In the U.S., they said, violent crime dropped 3% nationwide in 2023 compared to 2022. Murder dropped by 11.6%, rape by 9.4%, aggravated assault by 2.8%, and robbery by .3%. And in the first quarter of 2024, they said violent crime decreased by 15.2% compared to the first quarter of 2023. Nationwide, murders dropped by 26.4%, rape by 25.7%, robbery by 17.8%, and aggravated assault by 12.5%.

FBI numbers for generalized violent crime in New York don’t perfectly map to Hochul’s figures specifically for shootings. In fact, they show a peak of violent crime reports in mid-2023 that rivals statistics from the mid-’90s.

Even so, in recent months, Hochul has repeatedly drawn attention to progress, noting data showing crime rates in New York at 50-year lows. She acknowledged that while many people feel unsafe—”Part of it is fostered by people not just reading the news, but also being bombarded with social media,” she said at a meeting of the Business Council of New York State on September 20—reporting from law enforcement reveals safer streets.

She has stressed that changing public perception takes time, but that the facts tell a story of meaningful progress, adding that less crime comes with job growth and greater investments in education. “We will continue investing, innovating, and partnering with law enforcement to make New York a safer place for everyone,” Hochul said Wednesday.

Below: Hochul gave $36 million to departments in the GIVE initiative in June :

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