A gun buyback program in Kingston is breaking new ground. YNN’s Alexandra Weishaupt has more on why this program is different than buybacks in the past.

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KINGSTON, N.Y. -- The Kingston Police Department will give a gift card or cash up to $1,000 to people who give them information that leads to police finding guns used in crimes.

“The rewards is based on the incident, so if we have a shooting overnight and we determine that there's a weapon involved, if we want that weapon, we're gonna put money out a reward for that weapon out there,” said Chief Egidio Tinti of the Kingston Police Department.

After the deadly shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, the department began rethinking their policies and procedures pertaining to guns. And that led to this latest program.

“We don’t believe that the bad guy is gonna turn the weapon in, but we believe a third party may say that reward looks pretty enticing, I’m going to give the cops what they want and again it benefits us and it benefits the community,” said Tinti.

Tinti says this does not replace the single-day gun buyback programs held at least two times a year or their open door policy for turning weapons in as soon as possible.

“If someone comes across an illegal gun and they wanna turn it in to us, we'll take it right away, we'll have it in place that will be a standard $50, $100, $200 price tag for that weapon,” said Tinti.

He says the new reward program is another incentive for the community to work with police in an effort to reduce gun related crime. And he adds they're ready whenever the next shooting happens.

“We're prepared to do it now, but we hope we don't have to,” said Tinti.