$19M for Law Enforcement Technology Across WNY

The Tonawanda Police Department received more than $700,000, allowing the agency to purchase state-of-the-art headsets for the SWAT team to enhance communication, upgraded technology for patrol vehicles, and a drone and new body cameras. Additionally, grant funding was used to obtain four Axon virtual reality bundles — reality-based training scenarios to trigger similar stress responses to those an officer may encounter in the field — as well as a 3D scanner to document and reconstruct accident scenes and crime scenes, and a crash data recorder or to recover data from the vehicle’s black box. A full rundown of Western New York agencies that received significant grant awards is available online.

The Governor also highlighted the latest crime statistics reported by the Tonawanda Police Department and law enforcement agencies in Erie County. In Tonawanda, crime has fallen across the board from January - June 2025 compared to the same time period in 2024: index crime is down 11 percent, violent crime is down 36 percent, property crime is down 9 percent and motor vehicle theft is down 46 percent. At the same time, index crime fell by 13 percent, murders dropped 23 percent and property crime is down 14 percent in Erie County.

The Buffalo Police Department, which participates in New York’s Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative, is one of several jurisdictions that have seen significant declines in gun violence this year. When comparing January through August 2025 to the same period last year, shooting incidents with injury were down 22 percent and the number of shooting victims was down 31 percent in Buffalo.