HARTFORD ANNOUNCES $500K ‘SMART POLICING’ FEDERAL GRANT

Published on January 20, 2022

HARTFORD, CONN (January 20, 2022) – Today, Mayor Luke Bronin and Police Chief Jason Thody announced that the City of Hartford has been awarded a federal grant of $499,737.00 for its Smart Policing Initiative, focused on responses to non-fatal shootings. The grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, is a competitive award that aims to identify innovative and evidence-based programs run by state and local law enforcement.

Hartford’s program, called “Prioritizing Investigatory Responses to Gun Violence: Improving Case Clearance for Nonfatal Injury Shootings,” will support a dedicated unit within the Major Crimes Division known as the “Shooting Response Team”. The Team is focused on quickly responding to non-fatal shooting incidents with the same intensity that is given to homicide investigations. With this program, Hartford Police Department has significantly increased case clearance and success in prosecution of non-fatal shooting suspects. Hartford Police Department will also prioritize the collection and analysis of data to help guide and strengthen efforts to combat gun violence.

“The Hartford Police Department does extraordinary work in solving very difficult homicide cases, and they've also made tremendous strides in investigating, solving, and making arrests in non-fatal shootings as well," said Mayor Bronin. “This grant award by the federal Department of Justice is a recognition of the deliberate, evidence-based work that the Hartford Police Department is already doing, and it will provide valuable new resources to strengthen that work.  I'm grateful to Chief Thody and to the entire HPD team for their commitment to bringing violent gun offenders to justice, and I'm grateful to the DOJ for their support."  

“I want to recognize the group that worked so hard to put this grant together,” said Jason Thody, Chief of Hartford Police. “These grants are highly competitive and this award is a testament to our team’s dedication and ability to put forward innovative ideas to reduce violent crime here in Hartford. With this Smart Policing program, we will have additional tools to help keep Hartford families safe by allowing us to investigate non-fatal shooting incidents more rapidly and with the increased focus they deserve.”

The Shooting Response Team is a specialized HPD unit committed solely to the investigation of non-fatal shooting cases. It deploys detectives to rapidly respond to crime scenes and investigate all nonfatal shootings, and its available resources mirror the enhanced investigative training and assets more commonly available to homicide divisions. The program emphasizes a victim-centric investigative approach that is expected to play a vital role in clearing shooting cases. This grant will support expansion and continuation of the Shooting Response Team program by improving detectives’ skillsets, increasing intelligence-based investigative activities, and developing procedural justice training to expand the unit’s victim-centric approach.

“I am appreciative of the hard work Chief Thody and his team has done to secure this federal grant,” said City Council Majority Leader TJ Clarke II, Co-Chair of the Quality of Life and Public Safety Subcommittee. “With the volume of non-fatal shootings that occurred over the last few years, these new resources will help HPD increase the city’s quality of life and make Hartford a safer city for the community.”

"This program is another supportive tool that will help keep our neighborhoods safe from gun violence, and I'm proud of the work Hartford Police is doing to address this problem," said Councilman James Sanchez, Co-Chair of the Quality of Life and Public Safety Committee. "City Council is fully supportive of these innovative strategies to keep our residents and community members safe and healthy."

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