There have been 28 homicides in the city of Hartford in 2022 - an increase of one death from 2021, during the same time period.
“In the wake of the pandemic, we, like a lot of cities across the country, saw a significant spike in gun violence,” Mayor Luke Bronin said.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced $100 million will go out to communities across the country to help reduce gun violence and other serious crimes. The city of Hartford will receive nearly $2 million of that.
“Obviously we think that is very excellent because the communities have been really suffering over the years,” Mothers United Against Violence Director Deborah Davis said.
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Bronin said a portion of the funds will be used to support and expand law enforcement operations, including technology that helps the police department.
“One important element of preventing crime is also demonstrating accountability and demonstrating the ability to solve crimes and bring perpetrators to justice and technology is an important piece to that,” Bronin said.
Another portion of the grant money will go toward community organizations that help intervention and prevention.
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“It means expanding our community partnerships and making sure that the team of folk who are out there on the ground, everyday, doing the work of trying to prevent violence, intervene in group violence activity, de-escalation, have the support and training they need,” Bronin said.
Advocacy group Mothers United Against Violence is thankful money is being put towards the community to help address an issue they say has taken too many lives.
“It is a long time coming, we have been out here for 20 years, and we see some of the same problems from 20 years ago,” Mothers United Against Violence President Henrietta Beckman said.
