Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Record-Level, $35 Million in State Funding to Improve the Public Safety Response to Intimate Partner Abuse and[...]

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Record-Level, $35 Million in State Funding to Improve the Public Safety Response to Intimate Partner Abuse and Domestic Violence, and Better Address Needs of Survivors

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a record-level, $35 million state investment to improve the public safety response to intimate partner abuse and domestic violence, and better address the needs of victims and survivors. The five New York City District Attorneys' Offices will share $5 million while law enforcement and services providers in 20 counties outside of the five boroughs will share $23 million to implement evidence-based strategies to enhance the safety of survivors and hold individuals who harm accountable for their actions. The State Division of Criminal Justice Services is working with the State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence to ensure coordinated community responses and that interventions are rooted in survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive practices. Up to $7 million will allow the State to provide training and technical assistance, risk assessment tools, and investigative support to participating agencies and improve the domestic violence reduction efforts of state agencies.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page has photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Please sit down. Our state is getting safer every single day. As I said in my State of the State address, and have said countless times since then, protecting New Yorkers is my top priority, and we're getting real results. I want to thank individuals who've been at the forefront of this change, leaders in my administration, but also our partners on the ground, our district attorneys who really are seeing life sometimes that it's worse and sometimes that it's best.

And I want to thank them for being strong allies and pushing through changes in our legislation over the last couple of years, but also ensuring that their voices are heard when it comes to funding that they require to do even more. So let me give a round of applause and gratitude to Attorney General, I'm sorry - District Attorney from Queens, Melinda Katz, District Attorney from Westchester, Mimi Rocah, District Attorney from Brooklyn, who is the one and only, Eric Gonzalez, we've networked with him a long time, and Alvin Bragg, our District Attorney from Manhattan.

Councilmember Farah Louis has joined us, Assemblymember Taylor Darling has joined us here as well, as well as our advocates who you'll be hearing from in a couple moments. Now, as I mentioned, statistics related to crime overall, are trending in a very positive direction. Last month, the CDC released new data showing that New York State now has the third lowest firearm related mortality rate of any state in the nation, improving just going up - going to three positions more improved since I became the Governor.

In 2023, the Upstate murder rate is the lowest it's been since 1968 when reporting began. Data for the first half of 2024 shows we're down about 19 percent from last year. And meanwhile, New York City murders are down 13 percent. In August, we saw the fewest number of murders in four decades. Overall, crime is falling.

Upstate, crime is down 28 percent from a decade ago, down 40 percent. And other crimes have been tracking. So I want you to my priorities when we first came to office. The murder rate, the shooting rate was too high. We focused on this, we drove that down. And then we had challenges with larceny and retail theft and car thefts.

They're down double digits. We know New Yorkers deserve to feel safe when they leave their homes, when they're on the subways, in our streets, and many more New Yorkers do now. But let's talk about what happens in that sacred place, the home. The place you should have that foundation of security and what is coming to our attention and why we're here today, is not talk about our successes in other areas and say, we're done

Let's say, where do we need to do more? And when you think about the ultimate betrayal, that someone that you trusted, you perhaps loved, someone you thought loved you. Violence perpetrated by someone you know is the ultimate betrayal. And we have to talk now about how we drive the incidents of domestic violence down the way we have other levels of crime.

That is what I want you to hear today. We are going to be laser focused as we have been, but even more so with more intentionality, more resources, more effort, more media attention on what has happened to help in our fight against domestic violence and standing up for those whose voices have been silenced for too long.

Now, I have a mother, like many who were inspired by their moms. She didn't just do good things to impress people. She did it because it was the right thing to do. And I will give you a brief idea of what her life was like. Growing up with her mother living above a garage. It was her uncle's car dealership repair shop, and she had a father who was abusive to her mother.

And she saw as a child, that betrayal of love and trust that should have surrounded her as a little girl. And it was not there for her because she saw what her own mother had to endure. Ultimately, the husband, the father left, basically abandoning them, leaving them on their own. My mother basically had to raise herself and her mother had to work multiple jobs as a waitress.

Life was hard. And in that respect, you could expect that she would also perhaps turn and find someone who had similar propensities to her father. That's all she had known, right? But in turn, she decided to help others, and even as a young girl, her mother died when she was 16 and had to raise - my mom had to raise three little stepchildren as well, she had to grow up so fast.

All she wanted to do was help others, so they never had to endure what she saw her mother go through, and what she had to endure as a child. When my mom didn't have a chance to go to college, she was valedictorian, she was editor of the paper, she taught religion on weekends, and she was raising three little kids.

Extraordinary. Extraordinary. She didn't have a chance to go to college even though she was so smart until I was in college. When I was in college, she decided to go back. She needed to be an inspiration for the younger children behind. What she studied, was to become a social worker. She didn't quite make it there because of illness, but she was one credit closer, one credit short of becoming a social worker.

And during that time, all of her work was to help women who were victims of domestic violence. And while I was an intern for the New York State Assembly, my mother was actually testifying before the assembly, talking about what she had seen as a counselor, as a therapist, as someone who listened, and told the horrific stories of what she had heard and witnessed and who she was taking care of.

And I remember her telling me that there was even a wife of a doctor, when you think these beautiful big homes, they're very prominent in society, and you assume everything is perfect in the world. And there was a time, yes, before cell phones, there was telephone cords. And this man used to strangle his wife with a telephone cord and leave her unconscious on the floor and beat her after he came home from being a day as a doctor.

You know, this friendly face to the rest of the world. Stories like that are still seared in my knowledge of what people have to endure. My mother made sure that legislation was changed. That when a woman called the police, who used to come to the door responding to a cry for help, so often the police would talk to the husband and the husband would say, "No, everything's okay here. You can go away now."

The law was changed. My mother was a champion for this to say, "No, you must create a record. You must interview the woman. You must find out what's happening in that house because too many women are suffering in silence." So that and also becoming a great champion to help women in so many other ways.

And finally for my mother's 70th birthday, she decided, "I don't want to party. I want to open a home for victims of domestic violence," a transitional home because she knew the needs were so great, It wasn't just getting them out of that environment that day. It was going to court with them, holding their hand, asking who's taking care of the children when they're going to court? Who's making sure as they try to be retrained for jobs because so many didn't have a career that became mothers right away and always relied on the man for financial resources? They needed to learn skills.

So, my mom and dad bought a former funeral home. I mean, it's kind of creepy. We were all in there - especially the basement - but we turned the basement into a playroom for kids. We turned the attic into a computer lab, and there were six beautiful rooms that my mother and I decorated ourselves, painting them with soothing colors, bringing in flowers, bringing in pictures, a little backyard with a swing set; just trying to create an oasis for them to start the healing. And then also grabbed those children - the ones who had only seen violence and pain, and who had come there with hardness in their eyes. They don't seem carefree like children, but over time, they started to melt. You know, we'd take them out and play with them, I would babysit sometimes, my husband would take them to ballgames. And even if we didn't change the lives of thousands of people, we changed the lives of a few. And some of them went on to have homes of their own and became champions, talking about this as well.

I tell you that story because I want you to know what drives me: that story, that inspiration. To know that one person can make a difference, but in my position, I'm not one person, I'm one of many. And the people in this room are working shoulder to shoulder - the people behind me - are working shoulder to shoulder with me and others to say, "No more." And that's what I want to make sure happens, that no other child is robbed of a normal childhood, or that a woman is stripped of her confidence, and being betrayed and never able to love again. We have to change and break that cycle of violence that's happening - not on our streets, not in our subways - but in the security of that apartment or that home. And I also want to make sure that those who feel they are trapped and are fearful of seeking help know that there's a place they can come to.

And so we've come down to what is needed. We did a roundtable - we spoke about the roundtable I did last year and listened to so many of your stories, and you're going to hear some. I was the first governor to secure funding for flexible financial assistance for victims of domestic violence. They know they have a crisis, they have to get out of the circumstances. This helps them. Thank you. This helps them find housing. They cannot stay in that house - that house of abuse, that house of - they literally have to flee. Sometimes with just the clothes on their backs, grabbing their children and taking them to safety when they finally say, "This is enough, I can't take anymore."

They need housing, they need financial stability, they need a chance to rebuild their lives. And I've signed laws - bills into law - and I think our legislators have been great champions and partners in Albany to help survivors better enforce the orders of protection. Think about that. If it's that dire and you go get a court order and it's not being enforced against the person who is now stalking you - and this happened at the house that we ran, and we had to always worry about security. There are people who find out where the woman lived and would come after them and try to disrupt their lives and even harm them. So, that was always something on our minds.

We've also increased penalties, we've banned pornographic deepfrakes from being shared and we signed into law the "Rape is Rape" Bill, saying that victims of the most devastating form of sexual violence can also have protection under the law." So, we could do a lot in legislation. Yes, and you all fought for this.

And also, guns are often the instrument of deaths. When you think about the high number of gun murders, gun deaths; it's with a past or present intimate partner. Women are losing their lives. I've worked overtime. We've done everything we can. We passed, you know - the Supreme Court overturned our law that I had in place - for 100 years a governor could protect her people from people with concealed weapons, and the Supreme Court took that right away. Well, we didn't just sit there and say, "Well, that's how it is." We admittedly convened as the Legislature, we passed legislation and we also bolstered our red flag laws. So many times the warning signs are right in front of you and you can't do anything about it. Now you can. And we've issued thousands and thousands of more orders of protection. Before I issued the order - the change in our red flag laws - there were 1,400 extreme resource protections that are put in place to protect women and children and others who are around someone who could do harm to themselves or others. 1,400 went to 22,000. There are lives saved in that number. I know it to my core that the guns have been removed from people who could do harm, especially to intimate partners.

But more needs to be done. One in three New York women are impacted by domestic violence, and one in four New York men are as well. I want to make sure we put a spotlight on that fact…

One in three New York women are impacted by domestic violence. And one in four New York men are as well. I want to make sure we put a spotlight on that fact.

And members of the LGBTQIA community are at risk - as are trans New Yorkers especially at risk. And the statistic that is so staggering is that 80,000 New Yorkers experience domestic violence every year, it doesn't discriminate. As I mentioned, it's not a socioeconomic issue. It's not race. It's not geography. It's an issue of control, it's an issue of someone taking control over your life, and it can reach anyone.

So I'm going to continue bringing the power of the state to bear against abusers. And today we're announcing that there's $35 million being invested from the state. Historic investment toward this fight. It's the largest investment to fight domestic violence in state history.

And we're expanding support for our prosecutors, $5 million for each of the five District Attorneys downstate and more for upstate as well. Empowering them to pursue proactive solutions.

And I've talked to many of them, I've talked to assistant District Attorneys. They want to do more. They want to do the right thing. They want to help these victims just put the perpetrators in jail, so they can have some peace of mind and get on with their lives. And giving them the support they need will allow for that.

We heard that firsthand as we were doing our budget preparations last year, And we need to have them have the resources to build stronger cases, so they are successful in court. That's what this is about. And again, outside New York City, we're talking. We're taking on strategies that have lowered violent crime. The same strategy we used to lower violent crime, we're now deploying them to help victims of domestic violence.

So I'm proud to announce new statewide initiatives, statewide targeted reductions in intimate violence. It's easier to say the STRIVE initiative. It actually works when you look at it that way. And so this initiative is going to be similar to our GIVE initiative, which is the gun violence elimination program - which has been wildly successful. So we're going to continue getting money from those partnerships as well, and helping them develop strategies.

So we're going to keep working on that collaborative approach, and focusing on the top 20 counties outside the city that have the highest rates of domestic violence. This will bring together district attorneys, police agencies, probation departments, community based organizations - and create plans specifically for each county's needs.

Ultimately, the goal is to hold perpetrators accountable, Ensure that there's support for services for our victims, especially trauma informed and survivor-centered information and support. And there has to be continual training. I do understand that when an individual has to go to court over and over it's reopening the wounds that might have just been starting to heal even a little bit. It's like ripping them open again.

So we have to be aware that there's this repetition of the trauma that continues through the process, and that's why we have to minimize their exposure to this. And figure out a way to do this that sees them as individuals who are still suffering in great ways, even though they mask it so well. We have to understand in their hearts they're still broken, and they need to be helping. We need to help them heal.

So my hope is that years down the road we look back and say, "This is when it all started to change." As I can proudly talk about these other statistics around the state, which are incredible given where we were just a short time ago - I want to be able to stand here in a very short time and say we also drove down one of the most insidious crimes. The betrayal of trust, the abuse of someone that believed in you and trusted you - and shares a home with you perhaps.

Those are the cases we're going to stop. And if you are in the category of someone who abuses an intimate partner, a former partner or anybody - we're coming after you.

We've had enough. These individuals who've been victimized by you are going to be the ones who stand victorious afterward. When you are locked up, you are stopped forever from ever laying a hand on someone who deserves a better life, and justice ultimately.

So this is going to be a moment we're going to look back upon. And I want to thank everyone for your support here today, and to introduce right now, a District Attorney who I've worked so closely with.

She has been a champion. We've talked about her efforts. And for so many women, you know - we have daughters, we have sisters, we have our mothers. I don't know a single individual in the state of New York who is not familiar with the case of someone. Seeing them go through this searing pain, and we're all so committed to stop it.

And one of those individuals is Melinda Katz, our District Attorney from Queens. Melinda Katz.

Contact the Governor's Office