NEWBURGH – A three-year state-funded project aimed at solving non-fatal shootings in the City of Newburgh where the victim and witnesses refused to cooperate resulted in a significant number of solved cases.
The State Division of Criminal Justice Services provided the resources to pay for a district attorney’s investigator, a Newburgh City detective, and a crime analyst to investigate those crimes and the joint effort brought the solution rate up to 40 percent from a previous 14 percent level.
DA David Hoovler said the program resulted in new investigative efforts.
“Along the way we found a lot of factors that showed us how to close these non-fatal shootings, i.e.: doing more narcotics cases, the ways and means that we interview people and how we would go back over time, particularly when people were not cooperative, we found a lot of new ways to do things and a lot of innovative ideas,” he said.
The state has since discontinued funding the program, but Hoovler said he will continue it with local resources, although at a reduced level.
