Special Initiatives

The Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office has invested in the growth of community-based initiatives to reduce crime and improve outreach and partnership. These grants and initiatives reflect a commitment toward streamlining the connection between law enforcement and the community.

The Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office secured a collective $3,023,688 in grant funding from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to be used across three initiatives: the Hate Crimes Program, the Enhanced Prosecution of Domestic Violence Program, and the Conviction Integrity Unit.

The Hate Crimes Program, formally known as the WE the People, United WE Stand Against Hate - a Community Based Approach to Preventing, Educating, and Addressing Hate and Hate Based Crimes, focuses on the prevention of hate crimes while addressing and mitigating the root causes and improving victim reporting. With an emphasis on community outreach and partnership, crime and data analytics, and targeted resource distribution, we can improve the reporting of hate crimes and aid in the education and prevention of these bias-related crimes, both in person and online.

The award for the Hate Crimes Program is $1,000,000 from the DOJ.

The Enhanced Prosecution Program, formally known as the Enhancing Investigation and Prosecution of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking (EIP) Initiative, aims to improve the Office’s capacity to investigate and prosecute the various forms of intimate partner violence. The goal in improving the prosecution of these crimes is in supporting victim safety and autonomy while holding offenders accountable and promoting trust towards the Office within the community. The District Attorney’s Office will partner with Family Services to provide support services for survivors and prosecute these and related crimes.

The award for the Enhanced Prosecution Program is $500,000 from the DOJ.

The Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) allows for post-conviction evidence testing to ensure the integrity of past convictions. The funding will allow the CIU to effectively conduct thorough case reviews and investigations of violent felony convictions where a credible claim of innocence is made. By reducing the harm of wrongful convictions, proper justice can be ensured for the community.

The award for the Conviction Integrity Unit is $1,523,688 from the DOJ.

Read more about the DOJ grant program here: https://www.justice.gov/grants

The GIVE Grant program was awarded to 28 police departments and district attorney's offices across New York State, including Dutchess County.

The Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative is a nationally recognized initiative that provides state funding to local law enforcement agencies for equipment, overtime, personnel, training and technical assistance to reduce shootings and firearm related violent crimes. The initiative supports 28 police departments and district attorney's offices, probation departments, and sheriff's offices in 21 New York counties . In Dutchess County, GIVE funding is provided to the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department (CPPD), the Dutchess County District Attorney's Office (DCDA), Dutchess County Probation, and the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office (DCSO).

GIVE focuses on these four elements:

People: This strategy must focus preventative and enforcement efforts on top offenders who have been identified as being responsible for most shootings and homicides or firearm-related violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault).

Places: This strategy must focus preventative and enforcement efforts in geographic locations (hot spots) where crime data and analysis demonstrates that most shootings or firearm-related violent crimes occur.

Alignment: This strategy describes how partners will coordinate and align all existing resources in the community in an effort to reduce shootings and homicides or firearm-related offenses, where applicable.

Engagement: This strategy articulates how organized outreach to key stakeholders and the community at large will occur, how these actors will be given a voice, and how coordination will occur in a transparent manner that fosters wide-ranging support for violence reduction efforts with an emphasis on transparency.

Agencies participating in GIVE must use the Problem-Oriented Policing framework (POP) to develop their comprehensive GIVE plan, incorporate procedural justice into all elements of the plan, and implement more than one of the following evidence-based strategies: hot spots policing, focused deterrence, street outreach, and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design.

Read more about GIVE here: https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/ops/gunviolencereduction/index.htm

The Dutchess County District Attorney's office is one of 20 county law enforcement offices to receive funding from Governor Hochul's Strategic Target Reduction in Intimate Violence Initiative (STRIVE) grant. The STRIVE grant program awarded a total of $23 million to 20 counties outside of the five boroughs to support the implementation of evidence-based strategies for victim services, enhanced investigations, and to hold individuals who harm accountable for their actions.

The funding allows district attorneys, sheriffs’ offices, municipal police departments, probation departments and community-based providers to support victim services and survivors of domestic violence by implementing the STRIVE goals; prosecuting those who commit the crime of domestic violence, coordinating law enforcement efforts on all levels, and making sure those families affected are safe and have the necessary services.

STRIVE is modeled after the DCJS Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative, the requirements of which asks that participating law enforcement partners in each county develop a comprehensive plan using one or more evidence-based strategies to reduce gun violence shootings and save lives. The STRIVE grant requires a similar plan, with a focus on education surrounding domestic violence and community based reporting that holds abusers accountable while making an effort to stop the violence and allow victims to feel safe coming forward. Plans developed by counties participating in STRIVE must use evidence-based strategies and ensure that community members and programs that serve victims and survivors are actively involved in strategy selection and implementation. One or more of these strategies must be used to further this plan;

Domestic violence high-risk team model
Lethality assessment program
Intimate partner violence intervention

Participating STRIVE counties will also receive training and technical assistance from state and national experts to implement their described plans and strategies, as well as improving access to crime analysis, intelligence development and investigative support network from the State's Crime Analysis Network center. The goal of this connection is to improve the identification of perpetrators and build effective cases for prosecution across the state.

If you or a loved one is suffering from domestic violence, New York State’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline provides free, confidential support 24/7 and is available in most languages. Please call (800)-942-6906, text (844)-997-2121 or chat with @opdv.ny.gov.