The Syracuse Police Chief is cautiously optimistic the city can continue a downward trend in gun violence in 2024. Joe Cecile says the number of individuals shot, injured or killed fell by 36-percent last year. He balances the significance of the numbers against the sad realities of lives lost.
“If you think about those numbers and then the numbers of people that are affected by gun violence, the families of the people that were killed or even injured, the trauma they go through; that’s a big number for us.”
Cecile says the number of guns seized by police had been increasing consecutively year after year, but fell slightly last year by two guns for a total of 242. The Chief says another significant accomplishment by police is the number of gun-related arrests. They increased by eight-percent.
“It means we weren’t just finding these in a vacant lot or dumped in a trash can. These were connected to people. They were in people’s hand or in their waistbands. People who were intent on using them illegally.”
Cecile says “Gun Buyback” programs in partnership with the state attorney general’s office are also credited with getting guns off the streets. He says the weapons received are additional guns and aren’t included in the total number of weapons police officers seize during crime investigations.
