The number two official in the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) came to Niagara Falls Monday to tout millions of dollars in crime-fighting investments in the city.
But his visit to the Niagara Intelligence and Crime Analysis Center (NICAC) coincides with a continuing uptick in gun crime in the city, highlighted by a pair of incidents over the weekend.
Joe Popcun, executive deputy director at DCJS, said Governor Kathy Hochul has “surged $250,000” in additional funding to the Falls Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative and to Niagara Falls SNUG to help address the gun violence increase. Those funds will supplement the city’s 2025-2026 GIVE allocation.
The 2026-2027 GIVE grant, which would provide $1.17 million to Falls police and an additional almost $1 million in funding to the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, the Niagara County District Attorney’s Office and Niagara County Probation Department, remains in limbo because the Falls City Council has deadlocked on accepting the grant.
Popcun did not comment on the council’s refusal to approve the GIVE grant, but did call it “essential.”
“I think the state’s investment in GIVE is essential to (crime fighting),” Popcun said. “It is the backbone of our continued work on the elimination of violent crimes.”
Statistics provided by DCJS show that between 2021 and 2025, shooting incidents in the city declined by 76%.
“We’ve seen the kind of results that the GIVE initiative can produce,” Mayor Robert Restaino said.
But the first seven months of 2026 have presented challenges for Falls police. Shooting incidents and victims increased from 4 between January and July 2025 to 14 for the same period this year.
Homicides committed with firearms jumped from none in 2025 to 3 this year.
On Saturday, Falls police patrol officers responded to a “shots fired” call at 11:45 p.m. at the intersection of 19th Street and Walnut Avenue. When they arrived at the scene, they found a man lying in the street who had been struck by a vehicle that had been driving erratically after the gunfire.
A short time later, a second victim arrived at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center suffering from a gunshot to his right leg. The wound was not considered life-threatening.
Early Sunday evening, patrol officers received another “shots fired” call for the 400 block alley, between 19th and 20th streets. Witnesses described two male suspects, dressed in all black with ski masks, firing handguns.
Falls Police Crime Scene Unit detectives collected 13 spent bullet casings in the alleyway. No one was apparently injured as a result of the gunfire.
Police Superintendent Nicholas Ligammari said GIVE funding allows local law enforcement to do more than what can be accomplished within general municipal budgets.
“GIVE relieves the impact that (increased law enforcement action) would have on local taxpayers,” Ligammari said.
Popcun also said that since taking office, Hochul has invested $4 billion in public safety programs, including $127 million to 378 police departments and sheriff’s offices outside of New York City through the state’s LETECH grant program. Awarded in 2024, seven Niagara County law enforcement agencies received $2,925,333 in funding.
Falls police received the largest grant, just over $1.085 million.
Other LETECH grants were $950,000 for the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, $495,000 for the Lewiston Police Department, $210,000 for the Lockport Police Department, $75,000 for the North Tonawanda Police Department, $74,600 for the Middleport Police Department and $35,233 for the Town of Niagara Police Department.
Ligammari said the LETECH grant for his department has been instrumental in upgrading technology systems at the Falls Municipal Complex, where the NFPD is headquartered. It’s also been used to acquire a pair of drones, which are regularly used by patrol officers.
The superintendent said officers were able to arrest a suspect in a violent domestic incident by tracking him with a drone.
The drones are able to fly at 400 feet in the air and still read the license plates of vehicles. They are also able to send a live video feed directly to computer monitors mounted in police patrol cars.
“They are an amazing force multiplier,” Ligammari said. “They are so valuable.”