FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 13, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 21
NYPD offi cials say bail reform is partly to blame for city crime increase
BY TODD MAISEL
tmaisel@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Overall crime in New York City jumped
17 percent in January, mainly due to a
28.8 percent increase in shooting, burglaries,
assaults and grand larcenies including
auto theft , police offi cials say.
Commissioner Dermot Shea maintains
that bail reform may have contributed to
the rise in crime and they were changing
strategies to deal with it. Th e commissioner
was outspoken on bail reform recently,
saying it has gone too far.
However, some major indexes dropped
including hate crimes which decreased
by 24 percent, homicides are down 20.7
percent from last year — aft er last year’s
increase in those crimes caused alarm
among law enforcement offi cials. Rape
reports have also dropped just over
28 percent this month with 127 cases
Photo by Todd Maisel
reported compared with 155 last year —
though offi cials believe this crime has
been historically under reported by victims.
Transit crimes are also on the rise with
261 serious crimes reported for January of
this year. Compared to 201 last year, this
marks a nearly 30 percent increase over
the year before.
Chief of Transit Edward Dellatore said
much of the increase in transit crime was
attributed to an increase in robberies in
Brooklyn North, “mostly small groups
preying on other young people.” He said
many of these groups have been apprehended
Queens councilmen accuse NYPD commish of pushing misconceptions about bail reform
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Queens Councilmen Rory Lancman
and Donovan Richards penned a letter
to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on
Th ursday, Feb. 6, accusing him of pushing
a false narrative by asserting that bail
reform laws are to blame for a 17 percent
crime spike in the month of January.
In the letter, Lancman and Richards, who
respectfully chair the Council’s committees
on the Justice System and Public Safety,
asked whether the commissioner was referencing
unpublished data during the Feb.
4 CompStat meeting, when he attributed
the spike in index crimes to “people getting
post-Jan. 1 and then getting rearrested.”
Asked by reporters at the Feb. 4 meeting
for evidence that the bail reform laws
are behind the crime spike, Shea declined
to go into detail on how they were linked.
In their letter, the legislators dive into
CompStat fi gures comparing the number
of individuals released without bail in
January with the extent of the spike.
“Crime data fi gures released by the
NYPD itself demonstrate no such correlation,
and we’re wondering whether there
is any other, unpublished data you relied
upon to conclude that crime is increasing
because of the bail reform law,” wrote
the legislators.
CompStat lists 1,222 more index crimes
in January 2020 than in January 2019,
which Shea attributed to the number of
people who were released without bail
over the past month and rearrested.
But the letter points out that out of
the 230 arrests in January 2020 that
involved people released without bail
in January, only 84 were actually index
crimes. Th ese 84 index crimes represent
less than 7 percent of the 1,222 more
index crimes committed in January 2020
than the previous year, and only 1 percent
of the 8,437 total index crimes that
month, the letter states.
“Clearly, something other than bail
reform cause the January crime numbers
to spike,” wrote Richards and Lancman.
“Simply put, your numbers don’t add
up, and the public and policymakers are
ill-served by false narratives that inhibit
legitimate conversations about improving
the bail reform law.”
Th e two councilmen will have an opportunity
to further question commissioner
Shea about these fi gures at the Council’s
Public Safety budget hearing at 2 p.m. on
March 19.
and he expects transit crime to
drop in the next month.
Graffi ti has also become an issue on the
trains, though he said the large scale graffi
ti vandalism has dropped signifi cantly
as they have made arrests in transit
yards, where many of these crimes occur.
Commissioner Dermot Shea said many
of the graffi ti incidents are being committed
by “tourists who come here, some
of them grown people – though a few are
from the city.”
Th e stats also revealed an increase in
domestic violence, including the murder
of a young child. Chief of Crime
Control Strategies Michael LePetri, said
three domestic violence victims were shot,
two were stabbed, and one asphyxiated.
Contributing to the increase in crime,
LiPetri said, was grand larceny and car
theft . Offi cials say many of the car theft s
were because victims either left keys in the
car, left the car running, or left key fobs in
the car, allowing the vehicle to be started
without a key.
Shea has blamed the uptick in crime
partially on bail reform, and has been critical
in published reports in the past few
weeks. Offi cials said parolees and those on
probation have been committing a large
number of the crimes, but Shea said those
out on bail are part of the problem and he
called for allowing judges to have more
discretion when granting bail or no bail at
all. He said he stands by his position that
bail reform has gone too far.
“I stand by my comments on bail
reform, and while I favored reforms, there
has been a dramatic increase in crime by
people who are being let out of Rikers
Island — and we will deal with that,” Shea
said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he does see
a correlation of increase in crime due to
bail reform, but he said they are working
closely with advocates in Albany to
tighten the law so that people who present
a danger to the public will remain
behind bars.
“We have raised concerns about the
current bail reform and we are now having
a dialog in Albany about any changes,
but our police offi cers can handle anything
that is thrown at them,” de Blasio
said. “Law enforcement professionals
think reform principals make an even
playing fi eld for everyone, but we are asking
for pullback to be considered.”
“Th e bail laws had a disparate eff ect on
people of color and this create a contradiction
in a bail law based on money,” de
Blasio said. “Bail should be based on fl ight
risk and the threat to the community.”
But Mayor Bill de Blasio maintained
that despite the new numbers, “New York
City is the safest city in America and the
NYPD is the greatest police force in the
world.”
Shea was especially critical of protesters
who he said “represented only a handful
of people in a city of 8.6 million.” He
called the protestors a ‘bunch of knuckleheads.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed support
for the NYPD and said the protestors
were committing acts of vandalism in
the transit system and on the street, lighting
fi res in trash bins in a subway station
that could get people serious injured, and
showed “vile disrespect” for offi cers.”
“New Yorker’s didn’t pick up on it and
people should know that kind of activity
doesn’t get anywhere,” de Blasio said. “It’s
not easy for our offi cers to protect democratic
principals and right to protest no
matter the cause. Th ey put up with a lot
that night.”
Commissioner Shea said he believes
their neighborhood policing initiatives
will work and bring down crime in the
city. He pointed to the new Police Athletic
League building where the press conference
was being held as proof that “PAL
inspires the youth and helps them realize
their potential.”
“Th is department is doing remarkable
things to keep New York safe,” Shea said.
“And in that fi ght against crime, we will
never forget the victims of those crimes.”
Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison
said he had no update on the murder
of Tesa Majors in Morningside Park in
November, except to say, “this is in the
judicial process and we are meeting with
the District Attorney.” He could not off er
further comment.
Photo by Todd Maisel
/WWW.QNS.COM
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