PHILADELPHIA (December 15, 2022) – The District Attorney’s Office Gun Violence Task Force (GVTF), which comprises police officers, state agents, and county prosecutors, has received $20 million from the Pennsylvania Gun Violence Investigation & Prosecution (GIVIP) program.
The award is part of $170 million approved by Governor Tom Wolf’s administration to support law enforcement agencies and county district attorney offices across the Commonwealth as part of the fight to reduce and prevent gun violence.
The gun violence crisis that Philadelphia and communities across the United States are struggling to control has highlighted the urgent need for modern technological upgrades in law enforcement. The overwhelming volume of guns and ammunitions available to the public, mistrust in the criminal justice system, and aging or outdated surveillance and forensic technologies have created a perfect storm in which law enforcement struggles with a large volume of difficult-to-solve cases, many with no cooperative witnesses or eyewitnesses, causing arrest and conviction rates to suffer.
District Attorney Larry Krasner thanked the Wolf administration and state lawmakers who advocated for GIVIP program awards.
“The Gun Violence Investigation and Prosecution program is smart, effective support for law enforcement who are working diligently to identify and incapacitate people who engage in gun violence in order to prevent further violent crimes and to help secure justice for impacted survivors and communities,” DA Krasner said. “The $20 million award to our office’s Gun Violence Task Force is a significant and badly needed investment to modernize law enforcement, close more cases, and bring more justice and peace to all our communities.”
“We know the technology upgrades and expansions this grant supports will make a difference in our fight against gun violence — because they already have. The Philadelphia Gun Violence Task Force uses intelligence- and electronic data-gathering tools to secure convictions in homicides and non-fatal shootings of defendants involved in group retaliatory violence, even when witnesses refuse to cooperate,” Assistant District Attorney and GVTF Supervisor Bill Fritze said. “The grant being announced today will help to significantly scale up use of these technologies.”
The $20 million GIVIP award will be used to support GVTF investigations in the following ways:
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Expand the digital forensics lab
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Upgrade digital field technologies such as cameras
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Build a modern investigator and prosecutor case management system
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Upgrade crime scene kit technologies
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Boost intelligence pipeline development for more efficient intra-agency information sharing
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Personnel and administration
Information about the GVTF can be found on PhillyDA.org and AttorneyGeneral.gov.
CONTACT:Jane Roh, 215-686-8711, [email protected]
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The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the nation. It serves the more than 1.5 million residents of the City and County of Philadelphia, employing 600 lawyers, detectives, and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for the prosecution of approximately 40,000 criminal cases annually. Learn more about the DAO by visiting PhillyDA.org.