New York, NY (77WABC)-A historic partnership between the New York City Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives has been announced to combat gun violence and gun trafficking in New York City’s five boroughs.
The head of the ATF Field Office in NY State, John DeVito, and the head of the NYPD’s Counterrorism and Intelligence Unit John Miller took part in the announcement during the NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio’s briefing. “This work is going to make a crucial impact on the streets of NYC,” said the Mayor.
New York City’s PBA was quick to criticize the announcement on Twitter saying it’s nothing new:
This is not new. The NYPD-ATF Joint Firearms Task Force has been doing this for years. Once again, no new solutions from @NYCMayor. https://t.co/pi7nSOH3Da
— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) June 8, 2021
You can view DeVito talking about the new partnership below. The Crime Gun Intelligence Center is called “C-GIC.” DeVito said. “I am not going to get into the specific technologies being used by the “C-GIC”, however, I will say any tool old or new has and will be exploited to protect our citizens.”
“For those offenders specifically, it’s not a matter of if but when we will come calling,” said DeVito.
Miller said, “so the New York ATF Gun Intelligence Center is a key new program for us, it’s an incredible partnership, it allows a seamless flow of information that we haven’t seen before.”
Miller also said The High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program run by the NYPD’s Commissioner Chauncey Parker is where the new “C-GIC” sits.
The first of its kind partnership comes as the NYPD has made record gun arrests since Jan. 1 of this year, but crime has escalated.
In May, the NYPD’s crime index showed a 22% increase in crime overall from May of 202o to May of 2021. Shootings, according to the report spiked by 73%, to 173 vs. 100 in May of 2020. The largest increases in crime were in robbery which increased 46.7% (1,182 v. 806) and grand larceny which is up 35.6% (2,848 v. 2,101). Felony assault saw a 20.5% increase compared to May 2020 (1,979 v. 1,643). The full May report can be found here.
The report finds there were 37 murders in May 2021, the same as in May 2020.
