Buffalo has a more than 80% decrease in injury shootings since 2021, according to Buffalo Police Department data. State and local officials say it’s a credit to increased investment in resources and the community.
Shootings overall are at a 20-year low, and according to Open Data Buffalo, the number of total violent and property crimes had a more than 20% decrease from 2016 to last year.
Reducing violent crimes is a worthy objective, but there must be a means in place to make it achievable, Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan said.
“We hope this trend continues, but hope is not a strategy," he said. "But the programs that the governor has laid out year after year, that is a strategy ... to keep our crime rate down.”
Efforts like the Gun Involved Violence Elimination program help get law enforcement and community groups working together, Erie County District Attorney Mike Keane said.
“It enhances our efforts to collaborate together. We work so well together here in Western New York, and we couldn't do it without the help of the funding that we get through the GIVE program," he said. "In the City of Buffalo, we've experienced historically low violent crime numbers in 2025, as compared to 2021.”
There were 262 shootings involving injury in 2021, which dropped to 101 in 2025, according to GIVE agencies. That includes 43 shooting-related homicides in 2021 and 28 last year.
Not everywhere has seen the same benefits. There have been seven homicides so far in Buffalo, compared to 13 through the same point last year. But three of this year’s fatal shootings have been over the past month in Schiller Park.
The goal to reduce homicides is ongoing, and investment in community programs can help achieve that result, Governor Kathy Hochul said.
“Whether people have good jobs and good education and a better outcome where they don't feel that, you know, the streets is the only life for them," she said. "That's why we're investing so much in the violence disruptive programs. I think that's making a real difference."
Hochul pointed to the state-funded SNUG program as an effective means of violence prevention and mentorship, and $14 million to upgrade Erie County law enforcement equipment as another important step.
