Like nearly every city across the country, Buffalo saw a spike in gun violence that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2019 and 2021, homicides in the city — most of which were committed with firearms — jumped some 43 percent, the Trace reports. In the last year, many cities have seen the spike subside. But the drop in Buffalo, Pastor James Giles said, is “unheard of.” Buffalo’s decline in homicides was so large in 2023 that it ended the year with a total that hasn’t been seen since 2011. Homicides fell from 70 in 2022 to 38 in 2023 — a 46 percent drop. And it wasn’t just homicides, Giles said: “We had a decrease in shootings, period. Violence has fallen so much that it’s surpassed the goal that many cities have of getting “back to pre-pandemic levels.” The city’s success story is not attributable to a single initiative, but rather a tapestry of collaborative, mostly grassroots efforts weaving through its community, Giles said. A community that came together — with and without government aid — after the racist massacre at a Tops Friendly Market, a deadly blizzard, and the pandemic surge in gun violence.
Grassroots nonprofits, state- and city-funded social services organizations, police, and prosecutors came together to counter violence in Buffalo, he said. They implemented a truly multipronged strategy that combines state and local resources, empowers credible messengers from the community, and fosters cooperation between law enforcement and community groups. Dina Thompson is the executive director and a founding member of the Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition, which runs diversion programs to support young people in avoiding a path that could lead to gun violence. It’s almost impossible, she said, to point to a single reason for the decline. But she echoed Giles’s overarching view. “There’s a shared response to gun violence,” she said. SNUG, a New York state anti-violence initiative, has seen funding increases in Albany, and that money made its way to Buffalo. In 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a budget allocating $25 million to the effort. In Buffalo, SNUG started in 2014 as a street outreach program focused on gang interdiction overseen by Giles and his Back to Basic Ministries, which also operates the Peacemakers. In 2022, SNUG shifted to a hospital-based violence interruption initiative at Erie County Medical Center, known as BRAVE.