For the past four years, police agencies from many of the communities with the highest rates of violent crime in Upstate New York have been taking part in a special state program. Our Matt Hunter takes a look at how it's working.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For many years, the city of Newburgh laid claim to a distinction no one was proud of.

"It got to the point where community members would come up to us and say 'we don’t feel safe sitting on our porches,' " said Lieutenant Aaron Weaver, who joined the Newburgh Police Department in 1998. "Routinely, for years, we were number one in the state for a violent crime per capita, and we usually made, unfortunately, the top 10 in the country."

More than an hour north in Schenectady, law enforcement has also grappled with its fair share of violent crime.

"We look at gun violence very seriously,” said Eric Clifford, who was named Schenectady’s police chief last year. “My stance on it is that any gun violence in the community is too much, and we are looking to eliminate it entirely."

For the past four years, both cities have been part of the state's Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative.

"The biggest benefit is it has is talking about gun violence more often," Clifford said.

Overseen by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), GIVE aims to reduce shootings and homicides by providing funding, training and resources to local departments across Upstate.

"GIVE is focused on the 17 largest counties outside of New York City that drive about 80 to 85 percent of the violent crime and the shooting activity," said Michal Green, DCJS’s executive deputy commissioner.

On Thursday in Saratoga Springs, more than 300 law enforcement officers and professionals met for the latest GIVE symposium. Much of GIVE centers around improving community relations, but speakers preach evidence-based tactics like focused deterrence, which relies on data to target individuals most likely to commit violent crime.

"Under 1 percent of the individuals of a city are actually causing over 70 or 80 percent of the violent crime,” Weaver said.

"Not waiting for them to do something and reacting, but affirmatively reaching out ahead of time and trying to prevent it," Green said.

Green says the state is on track to have its lowest number of annual homicides since statistics were first kept in 1975.

In Schenectady and Newburgh, where the violent crime rates have dropped by double-digit margins, the signs are also encouraging. Newburgh’s violent crime rate has dropped by more than 60 percent over the past 12 months, while Clifford says Schenectady has witnessed a roughly 30 percent reduction when compared to the prior five-year average.

"If the community doesn't feel safe in their own homes, the community is never going to thrive," Weaver said.

"We are not going to just sit back and count our blessings. We are going to continue being diligent with addressing any kind or form of violence," Clifford said.