The neighboring New Rochelle and Mount Vernon police departments have joined federal, county and other local agencies in a combined effort to battle gun violence and gang activity by targeting repeat offenders.

The two departments have entered into the initiative with the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Westchester Department of Public Safety, the Yonkers Police Department and the Westchester District Attorney’s office.

“Every homicide due to gun or gang violence is one too many and every shooting makes entire communities feel vulnerable,” said Westchester District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah in a press release Tuesday announcing the initiative. “That is why law enforcement in Westchester County is committed to conducting cooperative law enforcement operations to stop violent crime before it starts.”

Countywide, so-called index crimes climbed 6.6% from 2019 to 2020, according to data from Westchester County. That category includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle thefts. Violent crimes slipped 2.9% to 1,585 incidents of murder, rape, robbery and assault.

The new cooperative effort will use “a precision policing and precision prosecution model targeting repeat violent offenders through short-term and long-term violent crime investigations,” said the DA’s release. “Together we will focus on using all available investigable tools and techniques to build cases against violent offenders and their enablers. We will prosecute those cases at the state and federal level, wherever it makes sense from a public safety standpoint of ending the violence.

In the statement, Rocah highlighted the decision of County Executive George Latimer and Mayors Mike Spano of Yonkers, Noam Bramson of New Rochelle and Shawyn Patterson-Howard of Mount Vernon to authorize the full cooperation of their departments in the project.

The initiative will allow law enforcement agencies to focus “on the inter-connectivity of criminal actors in their various jurisdictions,” the release said. “By staying ahead of the curve, targeting repeat violent offenders and working collaboratively, we will add to the efforts of our hardworking police departments to keep our communities safe.”