OP-ED
New criminal justice laws could hurt NYC
BY RICHARD “BO” DIETL
New Yorkers are weeks away from
sweeping changes to our criminal justice
system. A series of laws passed by
the state Legislature will take effect Jan.
1, 2020.
The legislation concerns bail reform
and new requirements related to the
collection of evidence and the process
of a speedy trial. These laws will vastly
and widely impact law enforcement and
crime in New York, and not for the better.
While well intentioned, these measures
will make NYC revert to the dire state of
the 1970s, which some of us personally
remember and some may associate with
the 1979 film “The Warriors.”
From a public safety perspective,
the new laws are a nightmare. Allowing
criminals to be free and roaming
the streets will only accelerate crime
and send NYC back to the “bad old days”
when lawlessness was rampant. I worked
the streets as a detective when the city
regularly saw thousands of homicides
per year. In the 35 years since I’ve been
retired, I am glad that crime has gone
down significantly and the city has become
one of the safest large cities on the
planet. Politicians are making laws that
can reverse decades of progress.
I certainly agree with the spirit of
criminal justice reform and have personally
supported bail reform. Thousands of
people get entangled in the system, which
can be unfair and cruel at points. For instance,
a teenager with no prior record
who gets arrested for a small amount of
marijuana shouldn’t be sent to Rikers
Island for months just because he can’t
afford bail. However, these reforms will
have severe unintended consequences
that politicians are too short-sighted to
think through properly.
The kind of bail reform presented
here will put serious offenders on the
street while awaiting trial. Bail will be
eliminated all misdemeanors, most nonviolent
felonies, including Class A drug
felonies and even certain burglary and
robbery charges. Even some homicide
charges can have bail waived under
these changes.
Even more alarming are the potential
effects of the new discovery requirements.
Witnesses and crime victims’
names and home addresses will be released
to defendants as soon as possible,
within 15 days. Police and prosecutors
already have a difficult job convincing
witnesses and victims to come forward,
under the new paradigm the task will be
nearly Sisyphean. Detectives will now
have to warn witnesses and victims that
their attackers may be on the street and
have their name and contact information
while awaiting trial.
The current anti-police climate in
the city has already contributed to lowering
the morale among members of the
NYPD. I speak to cops every day, and
many of them tell me they are hesitant
to act in the line of duty because they
know city politicians and the top brass
that report to them won’t have their
back in the event of a complaint. Police
have always been ready to risk their
lives for service, but now they risk their
reputation and livelihood just by doing
their jobs.
The discovery changes will require
police to turn over evidence such as security
camera and body camera to the
defense within 15 days. The process of securing
chain of custody of evidence can
be time and labor intensive. These laws
ignore NYPD budget and time restraints,
and will drain existing resources, reducing
the availability of detectives to carry
out their core functions of investigating
crimes.
These regulations can also hamper
long-term investigations.
Especially unsettling is that Grand
Jury testimony, which has for hundreds
of years been kept secret in order to protect
victims and help build cases, will
now be disclosed to defendants and within
15 days. Keeping Grand Jury testimony
secret has been effective for decades
at securing witness cooperation and assuaging
victims’ fears. Revealing Grand
Jury information may also put jurors at
risk of jury tampering and encourage
someone facing indictment to flee and
become a fugitive.
These new laws were passed for entirely
political purposes and without
regard for the safety of our city’s population.
Such drastic changes will radically
alter the criminal justice system on every
level and create far reaching consequences.
The city is entirely unprepared
for these imminent changes, which is a
very scary thought. I hope the governor
reconsiders these actions.
Richard “Bo” Dietl was a New York
City police officer and detective for 16
years. During his career he effected over
1,600 felony arrests during the most violent
years in NYC history. Since 1985 he
has been CEO of Beau Dietl & Associates,
an investigative and security firm. He was
a candidate for NYC mayor in 2017.
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