How will $139 million fix New York's gun violence 'epidemic'?
ALBANY  The $139 million the state plans to expeditiously spend to help curb a gun violence "epidemic," which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared this week as a state of emergency, has been in the states budget and set aside for these specific issues since New Yorks spending plan was approved in April. The next steps depend on who will receive the funds and how quickly the groups can then implement strategies that many criminal justice advocates and even some law enforcement officials believe could have a meaningful effect on reducing gun violence, particularly homicides. Cuomo heralded what was billed as the nation's first state of emergency related to gun violence during a Tuesday speech before members of the NAACP, labor groups and criminal justice advocates. Gun control advocates praised the embattled governor, who is facing multiple scandals and flagging poll numbers, for setting up a model for states across the country to follow. In New York, lawmakers and advocacy groups close to the issue generally were encouraged by Cuomo's actions. Some wondered why the moment for action came Tuesday, when Cuomo said the state is experiencing more deaths attributed to gun violence than from COVID-19. Executive orders very often accomplish nothing substantive, said Peter Warren, director of research at the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank. This one appears to be intended chiefly to elevate the issue of gun violence to emergency status. It's not clear that that emergency status is actually being used here so that something can be done (to address) gun violence that can't or isn't already being done.  The executive order states that over the next month, Cuomo can suspend certain parts of the states finance law to expeditiously allocate money to curb gun violence. Of the $138.7 million in the current state budget targeted to meet those needs, it is to be spent in four main groups, including summer youth programs and bolstering local and state police, according to information provided to the Times Union by the Division of the Budget. About $76 million is to go to summer jobs and community activities for youth. Of those funds, $57.5 million is to go to summer youth employment, which includes $10 million specifically for summer jobs in gun violence hot spots and $2 million for summer youth activities in those areas. About $18.5 million is for the state Department of Labor to fund job training, stipends and placement through the Consortium for Worker Education, a Manhattan-based private nonprofit that is the workforce development arm of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. About $50.2 million will go to targeted anti-gun violence and -crime initiatives and research. Of that money is $47.2 million for the Gun-Involved Violence (GIVE) Initiative, and SNUG, the states neighborhood violence prevention program, as well as other police reform initiatives. Another $3 million is for the Crime Analysis Centers and to create the Office of Gun Violence Prevention with the state Health Department. About $10 million will go to violence intervention, including money for SNUG to expand its street outreach programs and add 10 new hospital-based programs. Another $2.5 million will support the State Police Gun Trafficking Interdiction Unit. The recent spike in crime is shaping into a central issue for New York politics, and could remain so into the 2022 race for governor. "The fact that Cuomo wants to spend $138.7 million in taxpayer dollars to fix a problem he caused redefines irony," Republican state Sen. Daphne Jordan, R-Halfmoon, said in a statement. The governor "doesnt seem to realize theres an abundance of unfilled private sector jobs across our state. Only in New York." The money that is to be used to collect better data on violent crime so that lawmakers and researchers, specifically at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Brooklyn, was heralded by officials and experts as a good opportunity to cut to the core of the problem. Were a data-rich but analysis-poor society, said Joe Popcun, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at SUNY's Rockefeller Institute. Its only when were able to make that information go through that process of being timely, analyzed and distilled that were able to find meaning in it.  Gun violence has spiked over the last two year, Popcun said, bringing it back to levels not seen since 2014. It is, however, not close to where it was when crime surged in the 1990s. The causes of the rise has been hotly debated by politicians and others. Popcun said the granular data that the governors initiatives may yield could answer some of those questions. State Sen. Roxanne Persaud sees the spikes in crime related to the pandemic, but is also looking for more data. The Brooklyn Democrat sponsored a bill this year, which the Senate passed, that called for creating a Center for Firearm Violence Research at the state University at Albany. An executive committee would include criminal justice experts, as well as participants from the health sector, high-ranking university officials and others. A lot of the bill's contents were adopted by the governor during his announcement Tuesday. Persaud hopes her measure will still be signed into law, but in the meantime she supports the governors efforts and agrees there needs to be more police officers in her community. As hard as it may be for some people, (the solution) has to include law enforcement, Persaud said. Law enforcement must be a part of the conversation, otherwise no one will take you seriously.  The plan may require more money for more law enforcement than already planned, according to Thomas Mungeer, president of the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association. Its going to take at least two more classes of 250 recruits, on top of an additional class of recruits that has been backlogged to begin their training at the academy because of the pandemic, he said. That could cost the state $25 million to $30 million for training and equipment. In the meantime, Mungeer said, troopers wait for directions from State Police. He said they already attempt to get illegal guns off the street, but if theyre relocated from rural and suburban areas to the cities, then it may leave holes in the countryside, leading to other issues. The answer is fairly simple for Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick: more police and institute tougher policies like "stop and frisk," which were adopted following the spike in crime in the '90s. The Republican said the spike in crime stems from criminal justice reforms passed by the Democratic majority in the Legislature. While Fitzpatrick is willing to give Cuomos policies a chance, hes anxious for solutions to come faster. Its time we get back to policies that work, he said.