Brentwood is a community located in the Town of Islip in Suffolk County, New York. Of all the residents in Brentwood, males and females between the ages of 15 and 24 make up 8.3 percent and 7.5 percent of the total population, respectively. Racial demographics of the population are 48.4 percent White, 16.4 percent Black or African American, and 68.5 percent Latino or Hispanic. According to a 2012 study of gang activity on Long Island, Brentwood was found to have 12 percent of the total gang population in Suffolk County. Across Suffolk County, the five hamlets with the largest concentration of gang members are Brentwood (271), Huntington Station (230), Central Islip (223), Wyandanch (175), and Bay Shore (105). 

Bay Shore is also frequently identified by the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) crime analysts as a focus area. Bay Shore is located on the south shore of Long Island, only four miles south of Brentwood. Almost 14 percent of the Bay Shore population identifies as White, 19.6 percent identifies as Black or African American, and 30.8 percent identifies as Hispanic or Latino. Over 11.3 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Brentwood and Bay Shore have become flashpoints for crime and violence. For more than three years, Brentwood and its surrounding neighborhoods have experienced a new and disturbing criminal gang trend attributed to the El Salvadorian street gang MS-13. The group is associated with 25 murders on Long Island since 2016, including the killing of two teens from Brentwood High School and a quadruple homicide in Central Islip. In 2017, President Trump's visit to the Suffolk County Community College Campus in Brentwood sparked local dialogue about public safety challenges created by the immigration policies. The Suffolk County Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (SCBCJI) program seeks to address these issues while reducing crime in the target areas. 

SCBCJI practitioners will use data-driven, community-oriented, and place-based strategies that promote partnerships and capacity building. This project will address intervention, prevention, and economic development through career development programming. The SCBCJI program will employ data collection and analysis methods to identify focus areas and individuals between the ages of 14 and 24 who are likely to be either a victim or a perpetrator of violent crime in the Brentwood and Bay Shore areas. SCBCJI will utilize community engagement activities to solicit feedback from community residents and stakeholders. These activities will include the participation of frontline law enforcement officers to build and enhance police legitimacy and mutual trust in the neighborhoods. Once feedback is collected from both community stakeholders and law enforcement, SCBCJI will incorporate evidence-informed responses that address common concerns. Lastly, SCBCJI will integrate revitalization and workforce development efforts that tackle unemployment and service gaps by providing training in construction, information technology, and other emerging fields. These trainings will be in conjunction with trade unions, United Way Youth Build, school districts, Habitat for Humanity, and the Heartland Project in Bay Shore. The Heartland Project could be a substantial source of construction jobs for community members who have had construction training. Strong collaboration and strategic partnerships will be relied on to leverage the resources of both the public and private sectors in this project.

For the Implementation Phase, the SCBCJI project identified four goals to support with place-based and person-based data-driven strategies: 

1. Reduce gang-related crime and gang activity. 

2. Increase connections for undocumented and unaccompanied minors. 

3. Improve community safety. 

4. Improve community relations and community partnerships. 

Place-Based Strategies: 

• Fund overtime hours to connect officers typically involved in enforcement activities with the Community Relations Bureau to engage with the community in the target area through summer youth programs, soccer leagues, or cooking classes. 

• Purchase bicycles for officers to introduce them more to the geography of the community and identify which days and times are more likely for crime to occur. 

• Provide trauma and cultural competency training for police officers, probation officers, community members, and social service agency representatives.  

• Implement a family mentoring program in the target areas that pairs low-income adults with higher-income individuals for mentorship and support to help those struggling with poverty. 

• Implement youth engagement activities for high school students and immigrant youth, such as writing workshops and sports programs.  

• Hire bilingual community policing aides (CPAs) to provide language assistance at police stations in the target areas and develop a database and mobile app of community resources for youth. 

• Expand SCPD support of the police academy’s implicit bias training, the Civilian Academy, the Police Youth Explorer program, and the Youth Summer Police Academy program. 

• Install additional security cameras in the parks or wooded areas and implement one-hour Walk-and-Talk foot patrols with officers in the parks to address community concerns expeditiously. 

Person-Based Strategies: 

• Use crime and social network analyses to identify young individuals aged 16-24 who are at risk of being involved in criminal or gang activity. 

• Leverage strategies such as the Arches program, Operation Peacekeeper, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Comprehensive Gang Model to connect at-risk individuals to services and support networks. 

• Hire two outreach workers and case managers to conduct outreach to at-risk individuals and offer help and support. 

• Using the Council of Thought and Action and the Homies Unidos curriculum, help at-risk individuals create a plan for their lives and implement it with assistance from the SCCBCR project in order to help them turn away from a criminal lifestyle. 

• Fund workforce career training, small business development funding, and career-oriented internships to increase access to a living wage for youth, young adults, and their parents. 

Suffolk County Police Department, Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Suffolk County Probation, New York State Parole, Suffolk Felony Youth Part and Parole, Adelante of Suffolk County, Inc., Brentwood School District, Circles USA, United Way Youth Build, School Districts, Habitat for Humanity, and the Heartland Project.