
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT: Syracuse Budget Cuts Spark Safety Fears
Matthew Davison: Founder of O-G’s Against Violence, Clifford Ryan, works to stop violent crime before it happens. He says the city just made that job more difficult.
Clifford Ryan: I’m getting calls on a regular basis to come to certain areas on different sides of town to come talk to individuals… living that violent life.
Davison: The budget slashes nearly half-a-million dollars from ShotSpotter, a real-time gunshot detection system, and it puts an end to acity-run trauma response team. It’s all part of a broader 16-million-dollar reduction in spending. Ryan says these cuts will cost lives.
Ryan: …We got to cut that. Even if we know that’s going to mean 10 more individuals get guns. Or 10 more individuals do shootings. Or 10 more individuals commit crimes.
Davison: Ryan says grassroots organizations like his… can’t do it alone. Matthew Davison, N-C-C News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — A Syracuse anti-violence leader says recent city budget cuts could spark a surge in violent crime.
Clifford Ryan, founder of OGs Against Violence, says the city’s decision to cut key public safety programs leaves critical gaps that grassroots organizations like his are not fully equipped to address.
“It’s going to have a significant effect on the community. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Ryan said. “The community is gearing up for it.”
The new city budget, which took effect July 1, eliminated $450,000 in funding for ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system that alerts police to gunfire in real time. It also disbanded the Mayor’s Office to Reduce Gun Violence’s trauma response team.
The cuts are part of a broader $16 million reduction in city spending.
“When the city pulls back some of its resources, it definitely affects those organizations — and mine as well — tremendously,” Ryan said. “What we understand from an organization perspective is we have to step up either way it goes, with or without funding.”
Ryan said his organization has received “little to no” public funding since it was founded in 2015.
He said OGs Against Violence has helped prevent 44 shootings, 300 stabbings and 1,096 fights over that time.
With adequate city support, he said, that impact “could double.”