Upstate New York Splitting $1 Million for Crime Fighting

Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced $1 million in grants to boost crime prevention in upstate New York. 31 law enforcement agencies will be sharing the funding. The Southern Tier will be receiving just under $38,000 distributed to two police departments. Eight departments in the Finger Lakes region will be sharing over $185,000. The grant money will go to agencies located in counties that are not participating in the state’s Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative. That initiative will be replacing Operation IMPACT, which was a crime-fighting program started in 2004 for 17 counties in upstate New York with high crime rates. Cuomo and the state legislature agreed in the budget to replace that program with the GIVE initiative, allowing the 17 counties to compete for $13 million for the new program. However, the grant money announced on Tuesday will go to smaller law enforcement agencies not eligible for that $13 million.