SCHUMER ANNOUNCES OVER $5.5 MILLION COMING TO NASSAU COUNTY TO COMBAT VIOLENT CRIME AND EXPAND ABILITY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT TO PROTECT COMMUNITY
Nassau County Will Use Funds To Expand Community-Based Approaches to Prevent and Reduce the Violent Crime Recently Plaguing the Area
Nassau County Police Department and DA's Office Will Expand Anti-Gun Initiative and Combat Illegal Firearms
Schumer: This Funding Will Help Keep Nassau County Safe and Secure
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Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced that Nassau County has been awarded $5,634,254 in Department of Justice grant funds to combat violent crime and expand law enforcement's ability to devise innovative crimefighting strategies. The Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program) will help Nassau County improve the capacity of state and local justice systems and provide for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local needs. Nassau County will use the grant award to expand its comprehensive communitybased, datadriven approaches to prevent and reduce violent crime. Partnering under this award, the Nassau County Police Department and District Attorney's Office will reduce violent crime using enforcement, investigation, and prosecution.
"There is nothing more important than the safety and security of Nassau County residents and this grant will go a long way in ensuring our cops and district attorneys have the tools necessary to combat violence crime," Schumer said. "By providing this funding to Nassau County, children, families, schools, and communities are made safer by the dedicated work of law enforcement. I will continue to fight to ensure Nassau County gets the funding it needs to combat guns, gangs, and violence in the community."
County Executive Suozzi said, "Nassau County is the safest county of its size in the nation, and our Police Department continues to be at the forefront of innovative law enforcement strategies that provide the most effective service to all our residents. This award will allow the police department to continue expand our efforts to reduce an already low number of violent crimes per capita. It will protect our residents by funding our enormously successful gunbuyback program, and the County's intelligence led policing and gang reduction work. I thank Senator Schumer and the Department of Justice for supporting the County's efforts to reduce crime."
The Byrne Competitive Program focuses on initiatives in eight areas: preventing and reducing violent crime through communitybased datadriven approaches; providing funding for neighborhoodbased probation and parole officers; reducing mortgage fraud and crime related to vacant properties; hiring of civilian support personnel in law enforcement, training staff, analysts, dispatchers; enhancing forensic and crime scene investigations; improving resources and services for victims of crime; supporting problemsolving courts; and national training and technical assistance partnerships.
Nassau County will use the grant award to expand its comprehensive communitybased, datadriven approaches to prevent and reduce violent crime. Partnering under this award, the Nassau County Police Department and District Attorney's Office will reduce violent crime using enforcement, investigation, and prosecution. Nassau County will implement the following strategies: retain experienced detectives in the Special Investigation Squad Gang Unit; retain Assistant District Attorneys assigned to the Street Narcotics and Gang Bureau; hire police analysts for the department's Lead Development Center and the Special Investigation Squad; deploy members on overtime to enforce and investigate violent crimes committed with illegal firearms or by subjects with gang associations; and conduct community outreach programs to deliver an antigun violence and antigang message to atrisk youth. The county has established the following objectives: identify, interview, investigate, and hire potential applicants in accordance with county civil service procedures; conduct training for new hires; use training to perform job duties as required; retain experienced, sworn detectives; retain experienced District Attorneys; deploy targeted patrols to hot spots identified through intelligencebased data analysis; conduct in depth investigations into violent criminal enterprises; and conduct community outreach programs.
