Directs the division of criminal justice services to establish the safer communities grant program making grants available to investigative or prosecutorial entities involved with cases of homicides, rapes, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and non-fatal shootings; requires a report to the legislature; makes an appropriation therefor.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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996
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. ROLISON, BORRELLO -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to directing the division
of criminal justice services to establish the safer communities grant
program; and making an appropriation therefor
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 835 of the executive law is amended by adding five
2 new subdivisions 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 to read as follows:
3 12. "Clearance by arrest", with respect to an offense reported to a
4 law enforcement agency, means the law enforcement agency has arrested
5 not less than one person for the offense, charged said person with the
6 commission of the offense and referred said person for prosecution for
7 the offense; or has cited an individual under the age of eighteen to
8 appear in juvenile court or before another juvenile authority with
9 respect to the offense, regardless of whether a physical arrest
10 occurred.
11 13. "Clearance by exception", with respect to an offense reported to a
12 law enforcement agency, means the law enforcement agency has identified
13 not less than one person suspected of the offense, and with respect to
14 the suspect, has gathered enough evidence to support an arrest of the
15 suspect, make a charge against the suspect; and refer the suspect for
16 prosecution; identified the exact location of the suspect so that the
17 suspect could be taken into custody immediately; and encountered a
18 circumstance outside the control of the law enforcement agency that
19 prohibits the agency from arresting the suspect, charging the suspect,
20 or referring the suspect for prosecution, including the death of the
21 suspect, the refusal of the victim to cooperate with the prosecution
22 after the suspect has been identified, or the denial of extradition
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01579-01-5
S. 996 2
1 because the suspect committed an offense in another jurisdiction and is
2 being prosecuted for that offense.
3 14. "Clearance rate", with respect to a law enforcement agency, means
4 the number of offenses cleared by the law enforcement agency, including
5 through clearance by arrest and clearance by exception, divided by the
6 total number of offenses reported to the law enforcement agency.
7 15. "Eligible entity" means a Tribal or municipal law enforcement
8 agency or prosecuting office, or a group of Tribal law enforcement agen-
9 cies or Tribal prosecuting offices.
10 16. "Program" means the grant program established under section eight
11 hundred forty-five-f of this article.
12 § 2. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 845-f to
13 read as follows:
14 § 845-f. Safer communities grant program. 1. As used in this section,
15 "specified offenses" includes homicides, rapes, sexual assaults, kidnap-
16 pings and non-fatal shootings.
17 2. Not later than one hundred eighty days after the effective date of
18 this section, the division of criminal justice services shall establish
19 the safer communities grant program to award grants to eligible entities
20 for investigative and/or prosecutorial activities with the specific
21 objective of improving clearance rates for cases involving one or more
22 specified offenses. Grants shall be in such amounts as determined
23 appropriate by the division of criminal justice services on a case-by-
24 case basis.
25 3. An eligible entity seeking a grant under the program shall submit
26 to the division of criminal justice services an application at such time
27 and in such manner as determined by the division of criminal justice
28 services containing or accompanied by:
29 (a) such information as the division of criminal justice services may
30 reasonably require; and
31 (b) a description of each eligible project, as described in subdivi-
32 sion five of this section, that the grant will fund.
33 4. The division of criminal justice services, in selecting a recipient
34 of a grant under the program, shall consider the specific plan and
35 activities proposed by the applicant to improve clearance rates for
36 specified offenses. Eligible applicants that do not receive funding
37 through the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative adminis-
38 tered by the division of criminal justice services shall be given prior-
39 ity in the allocation of safer communities grant program awards.
40 5. A grant recipient shall use the grant for activities with the
41 specific objective of improving clearance rates for cases involving
42 specified offenses, including:
43 (a) ensuring the retention of detectives who are assigned to investi-
44 gate the specified offense or offenses as of the date of receipt of the
45 grant;
46 (b) hiring and training additional detectives who will be dedicated to
47 investigating specified offenses;
48 (c) developing policies, procedures, and training to improve the abil-
49 ity of detectives to effectively investigate and solve cases involving
50 specified offenses, including implementing best practices relating to:
51 (i) improving internal agency cooperation, organizational oversight
52 and accountability, and supervision of investigations;
53 (ii) developing specific goals and performance metrics for both inves-
54 tigators and investigative units;
55 (iii) establishing or improving relationships with the communities the
56 agency serves; and
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1 (iv) collaboration with and among other law enforcement agencies and
2 criminal justice organizations;
3 (d) training personnel to address the needs of victims and family
4 members of victims of specified offenses or collaborating with trained
5 victim advocates and specialists to better meet victims' needs;
6 (e) acquiring, upgrading, or replacing investigative, evidence proc-
7 essing, or forensic testing technology or equipment;
8 (f) development and implementation of policies that safeguard civil
9 rights and civil liberties during the collection, processing, and foren-
10 sic testing of evidence;
11 (g) hiring or training personnel for collection, processing, and
12 forensic testing of evidence;
13 (h) hiring and training of personnel to analyze violent crime and the
14 temporal and geographic trends among specified offenses;
15 (i) retaining experts to conduct a detailed analysis of homicides and
16 shootings using Gun Violence Problem Analysis (commonly known as "GVPA")
17 or a similar research methodology;
18 (j) ensuring victims have appropriate access to emergency food, hous-
19 ing, clothing, travel, and transportation;
20 (k) developing competitive and evidence-based programs to improve
21 homicide and non-fatal shooting clearance rates;
22 (l) developing best practices for improving access to and acceptance
23 of victim services, including victim services that promote medical and
24 psychological wellness, ongoing counseling, legal advice, and financial
25 compensation;
26 (m) training investigators and detectives in trauma-informed interview
27 techniques;
28 (n) establishing programs to support officers who experience stress or
29 trauma as a result of responding to or investigating shootings or other
30 violent crime incidents; and/or
31 (o) ensuring language and disability access supports are provided to
32 victims, survivors, and their families so that victims can exercise
33 their rights and participate in the criminal justice process.
34 6. A grant made under the program shall not exceed one hundred percent
35 of the cost of the proposed activity if the grant is awarded on or
36 before March thirty-first, two thousand thirty-six or fifty percent of
37 the cost of the proposed activity if the grant is awarded after March
38 thirty-first, two thousand thirty-six.
39 7. Not later than one year after receiving a grant under the program,
40 and each year thereafter during which the activity funded by the grant
41 is carried out, a grant recipient shall submit to the division of crimi-
42 nal justice services a report on the activities carried out using the
43 grant, including, if applicable: the number of homicide and non-fatal
44 shooting detectives hired by the grant recipient; the number of
45 evidence-processing personnel hired by the grant recipient; a
46 description of any training that is provided to existing (as of the date
47 on which the grant was awarded) or newly hired homicide and non-fatal
48 shooting detectives and designed to assist in the solving of crimes and
49 improve clearance rates; any new evidence-processing technology or
50 equipment purchased or any upgrades made to existing (as of the date on
51 which the grant was awarded) evidence technology or equipment, and the
52 associated cost; any assessments of evidence-processing technology or
53 equipment purchased with grant funds to determine whether such technolo-
54 gy or equipment satisfies the objectives of the use of the technology or
55 equipment in increasing clearance rates, and any policies in place to
56 govern the use of the technology or equipment; the internal policies and
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1 oversight used to ensure that any technology purchased through the grant
2 for the purposes of improving clearance rates does not violate the civil
3 rights and civil liberties of individuals; data regarding clearance
4 rates for homicides, rapes, other aggravated felonies, and non-fatal
5 shootings, including the rate of clearances by arrest and clearances by
6 exception, and crime trends from within each jurisdiction in which the
7 grant recipient carried out activities supported by the grant; whether
8 the grant recipient has provided grant funds to any victim services
9 organizations, and if so, which organizations; the demographic informa-
10 tion for victims of homicides, rapes, other aggravated felonies, and
11 non-fatal shootings, and the length and outcomes of each investigation,
12 including whether the investigation was cleared by arrest or exception;
13 the demographic information for each victim or family member of a victim
14 who received victim-related services provided by the grant recipient;
15 and identification of the services most used by victims and their fami-
16 lies and identification of additional services needed.
17 8. No later than two years after the effective date of this section,
18 and every two years thereafter, the division of criminal justice
19 services shall conduct an evaluation of the practices deployed by grant
20 recipients to identify policies and procedures that have successfully
21 improved clearance rates for homicides, rapes, sexual assaults, kidnap-
22 pings, and non-fatal shootings; and the efficacy of any services
23 provided to victims and family members of victims of homicides, rapes,
24 sexual assaults, kidnappings, and non-fatal shootings. Not later than
25 thirty days after completion of an evaluation the division of criminal
26 justice services shall submit to the temporary president of the senate
27 and speaker of the assembly a report including the results of the evalu-
28 ation and information reported by each grant recipient under subdivision
29 seven of this section.
30 § 3. The sum of thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) is hereby appro-
31 priated to the division for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2036 out
32 of any moneys in the state treasury in the general fund to the credit of
33 the local assistance account, not otherwise appropriated, and made imme-
34 diately available, for the purpose of establishing safer communities
35 grant program to award grants to eligible entities for activities with
36 the specific objective of improving clearance rates for homicides,
37 rapes, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and non-fatal shootings.
38 § 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
39 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
40 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
41 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
42 on or before such effective date.
