BUFFALO, N.Y. — The numbers are staggering: 38 homicides in Buffalo this year, including one where a man was gunned down on the highway.  Many of the incidents are driven by neighborhood gangs.

For people living on Buffalo's west side, the memories of the terror that came with the rivalry between the 7th and 10th Street gangs are still fresh. After years of violence, things escalated in 2009 when innocent bystanders got caught in the cross fire.

Finally, in 2012, the last of the 66 gang members was prosecuted and sent to prison.

Joe Tripi was the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case. He says the only reason they were able to get those convictions was a coordinated effort between all levels of law enforcement.

"Those groups had been in existence for a long time. They had prosecuted a person here or a person there. It was always staggered,” he said. “One or two members of the gang go to jail. The rest of them stay out. Then maybe one or two more get arrested, and then the other two who prosecuted previously get out of jail. So there's not a net loss there for the organization."

Federal statutes made the difference.

"We indicted six. We indicted 17 more. Then we indicted 27 more. Then we indicted 17 more. You're taking large groups of them off the streets at the same time, and that's when you started to see crime rates drop to historically low levels on the west side," said Tripi.

Buffalo police homicide detectives, two FBI agents, and two State Police investigators worked the case for about six years before the final gang members were put away.

"That took an immense amount of work, years of work. That took down a lot and they got big time,” said John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Union. “Initially, yeah, you did have guys moving up, so you had some shootings, and things. But once things smoothed out, it's seemingly quiet over in that area right now.”

Now, law enforcement is applying the lessons learned on the west side to the eastern portion of the city, which has seen the majority of homicides this year.

This June and July were among the top six deadliest months in Buffalo in the last decade — with a grandmother and toddler becoming collateral damage.

"There are more of these neighborhood-based groups to deal with. So it covers a larger geographic area, so it well may need more manpower than was assigned to the 7th and 10th Street case to attack it," said Tripi. He added, "We targeted who the evidence suggested were the gang's shooters, we prioritized. It's always a small number a shooters, a small number of people driving the violence."

Police are stepping up their efforts to get illegal guns and guns used in crimes off the streets. As of the beginning of August, they had recovered around 300.

But everyone acknowledges that a lot of it will come down the community.

“We had to build that trust, and it doesn't happen overnight,” said Vanita Jamison who was the FBI's community outreach specialist during the 7th and 10th street gangs.

She added, "You can get rid of drugs today. You can get rid of gangs today, but they'll just infest themselves somewhere else, and they'll be back. So you continuously have to build those relationships that are imperative to not just solving cases, but also having trust at the end of the day between people."

That's why city leaders are increasing community policing and hosting more neighborhood events.

Jamison says she sees the change brought about by their efforts on the west side and says that same peace can be achieved on the east side.

"I always will believe that there's hope out there, that things can change,” said Jamison.