New York Governor Andrew Cuomo toured the state Tuesday, including a stop at the Boys and Girls Club in Rochester, to launch a statewide anti-gang violence initiative.
The governor says the state is battling a twin scourge of the heroin-opioid drug epidemic added to the ongoing problem of gangs and gun violence. Those two are coming together across New York, so Cuomo says the state has geared up more funding for GIVE – the “gun involved violence elimination” program. It uses data reported by statewide law enforcement to plot and target the communities where gun violence is the highest.
Ten more troopers are being hired for the New York State Police to be stationed in Rochester, and they’re being equipped with new surveillance tech to fight what Cuomo says is really a war against an enemy that preys on the weakest.