The ellicottville police department and the salamanca police department are in the southern tier of western new york

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded a $189,778 Rural Violent Crime Initiative (CFDA 16.039) project grant to the Town of Ellicottville, NY to address violent crime in the southern tier of western New York. The 3-year grant, running from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2027, will support a collaborative effort between the Ellicottville and Salamanca Police Departments. The project takes a dual approach of strengthening both crime prevention through community engagement activities, as well as enforcement through intelligence-led policing, additional officer training, and digital evidence processing capabilities. Key activities include regular community meetings, juvenile outreach, targeted patrols, and providing officers training on topics such as use of force, crime prevention through environmental design, and sexual assault investigations. Additionally, the grant will fund new digital evidence processing technology to improve case development and successful prosecution of violent crimes.

Both are small departments located in rural areas with significantly higher poverty rates than the rest of the county. The area has severalattractions including popular SKI resorts, annual festivals, cannabis dispensaries, and a large casino that draw thousands to the area each year. With the influx of visitors, the area has experienced an alarming increase in violent crimes. With the limited staffing, technological capabilities, and financial limitations of both departments, these violent crimes have posed a significant challenge. The violent crime reduction project is a coordinated effort between the ellicottville police department and the salamanca police department. The project takes a dual approach to combating violent crime by strengthening both prevention efforts and enforcement. Prevention efforts will be bolstered through community engagement. Activities will include regular community meetings, gatherings, raffles, increased social media messaging, juvenile outreach activities and more. Enforcement activities will rely on intelligence-led policing to identify hot-spot areas during specific times and events for additional patrols, bicycle patrol, foot patrol, and plain clothes patrol. Enforcement will also be bolstered through additional officer training. Officers will be provided the opportunity to expand their skill set on topics such as use of force, police bicycle patrol, crime prevention through environmental design, verbal DE-escalation, digital evidence processing, and sexual assault investigations. Lastly, the lack of ability to process digital evidence has been a hindrance for both departments. With the addition of digital evidence processing technology, investigations will result in stronger cases for successful prosecution of violent crimes.