Shootings are down 19% this year in Rochester, Syracuse and 26 other places in New York where police participate in a state-funded program to reduce gun violence, according to new data touted by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
One of the sharpest drops came in Rochester, which reported 79 shootings resulting in injury or death from January to August this year — 25% fewer than in the same eight-month period in 2025. The number of people killed by gunfire in Rochester fell from 16 to six from one year to the next, based on the tallies compiled by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Hochul announced the statistics on Thursday, Oct. 1, along with the latest annual funding of $36 million for all agencies taking part in an initiative known as Gun Involved
Violence Elimination, or GIVE. She said shootings have dropped 67% overall in those places since she took office in 2021, while New York has spent almost $1 billion to reduce gun violence during that time.
“Keeping New Yorkers safe is my top priority," said Hochul, who's running for re-election on Nov. 3 and eager to show gains in public safety. "And with record investments and strong partnership with law enforcement, we’ll keep driving down gun violence to record lows."
How the GIVE program works to curb gun violence in NY
The GIVE program provides funding for personnel, overtime, equipment and other uses to police forces of all sizes, ranging from large departments serving cities such as Yonkers, Utica and Mount Vernon to smaller squads in places like Spring Valley, Middletown, Kingston, Newburgh and Binghamton. It also directs funding to district attorney, sheriff and probation offices in 21 counties.
Among the highest grants in the latest GIVE round:
- Rochester police, $3.3 million
- Buffalo police, $2.1 million
- Erie County district attorney's office, $2 million
- Monroe County district attorney's office, $1.5 million
- Syracuse police, $1.3 million
The new data shows 289 shootings with injury or death in the 28 GIVE jurisdictions in the first eight months of this year, down from 356 in that period in 2025. Much of that decrease came from the drops in Rochester and in Syracuse, where shootings declined to 30 from 40 in 2025. Two places — Buffalo and Niagara Falls — reported increases in shootings this year.
Shootings numbered in single digits in one or both years in many places. They dropped to seven from 12 in Yonkers, to three from nine in Newburgh, and to three from eight in Mount Vernon. Utica stayed even with eight shootings in both years.
Yonkers had a serious shooting on Sept. 16 — after the period covered by the new state data — in which one person was killed and four were injured. A 15-year-old boy is accused of opening fire at a group on a street corner and has been charged with second-degree murder in what police believe was a gang-related incident.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA TODAY Network. Reach him at CMcKenna@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY spent $1B to curb gun violence. How shootings dropped in key cities
