The 60 days spent trying to curb gun violence in the City of Rochester has ended, but did it work?
James P. Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, has talked about how well the initiative worked in Buffalo but has not said anything about the Rochester area.
A press conference last week was scheduled to talk about the outcomes of VIPER in Rochester was but was rescheduled. Kennedy’s office claimed to still be collecting data.
The event was not rescheduled.
Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said at the beginning of the summer there was a huge violence issue, but that it seems to have gotten better and he thinks the VIPER initiative was successful.
Since July the task force has made 54 arrests for violent crimes and 23 of them were for shootings happening recently.
13 of the 23 had a gun at the time of their arrest.
Originally, the arrests made were supposed be charged federally, but that doesn’t seem to be happening and a lot of the suspects arrested are getting out and reoffending.
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