County Executive Pat Ryan, Sheriff Juan Figueroa, District Attorney Dave Clegg, Kingston Mayor Steve Noble, members of law enforcement and community leaders, held a joint press conference outside Kingston Library to announce the formation of the Anti-Violence Effort Response Team (AVERT) — a first-of-its-kind, multi-agency unit focused on preventing violent crime across the County.
The AVERT unit will initially consist of detectives, officers, County social workers and mental health experts. Additionally, they will partner with community leaders and mentors as well as offer needed services to combat violent crimes, get illegal guns off of the streets, and divert at-risk youth to appropriate resources and programs.
“We must end the escalating cycle of violent crime in our City and in our County. AVERT will tackle this urgent challenge head on, taking an innovative and proactive approach to ensuring public safety,” Ryan said. “We all agree this cycle of tit-for-tat violence and crime is unacceptable, and today we’re taking a major step forward — as a community — in our efforts to bring it to an end.”
“By partnering with County Government, our mental health partners, the District Attorney’s Office, and other policing jurisdictions, AVERT will allow us to redouble our efforts to curb gun violence,” Mayor Steve Noble added. “Using an evidence-based approach to remove illegal weapons off our streets, this program will help prevent the next violent act.”
In March, Ryan convened elected officials and religious and community leaders to discuss and outline a community-wide action plan in response to the recent surge of gun violence in the City of Kingston and Ulster County. In addition, he announced that the county was launching a new Lights On Kingston youth program along with $240,320 in funding to be dedicated for Ulster County to participate in the Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative, which works to reduce gun violence and save lives in communities with high rates of firearm-related violence across the state.
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