NY’s bail reform raises cross-border safety concerns

By Matt Freeze —

New York’s bail reform has not only impacted communities across the region but has also put a dent in public safety across its southern border, local law enforcement officials say.

Bradford County District Attorney Rich Wilson said New York’s relaxed approach has led to more crime in general, as it creates the impression that punishments are lax across the board.

Wilson said he’s noticed that the people arrested in his jurisdiction from New York often have drugs on them or flee from police.

“They put the public at risk with things like that,” he said. “Unfortunately, the public pays the price for that because now we’re subjected to more and more crime.”

In recent weeks, the Owego Police Department has issued statements regarding individuals who had been arrested for shoplifting, were released, didn’t appear for court, were arrested on warrants for failure to appear, and were immediately released again.

This process has been a carousel for the two individuals about six or seven times this year, officials said.

Owego Police Chief Joe Kennedy said it’s unfortunately an extremely common occurrence since New York loosened its bail guidelines in 2019.

“It is very frustrating — it happens over and over and over again,” Kennedy said. “Unfortunately, something always happens at some point. You’ll usually see this in cities, where someone will be arrested 17, 18 times and released, and then you’re talking a major crime where somebody gets killed or something along those lines.”

It makes it very hard to do all this work, and they’re just released, he continued.

Kennedy said it’s certainly the case that not everybody needs to be locked up, and that some people make mistakes, but reform shouldn’t be to the benefit of repeat criminals.

Kennedy said these repeated interactions often end up with a belligerent and dangerous suspect with regard to officer safety.

“Eventually, somebody’s going to get hurt by somebody that shouldn’t be out — absolutely,” Kennedy said.

Asked whether these changes have resulted in futile feelings among his officers, Kennedy said, “That’s always something that pops up, here and there, it gets very frustrating — ‘Why are we doing this?’ I always say we do our part and bring them where they need to be brought to, and then it’s up to the judge and the DA to finish.”

Kennedy said that while their crimes eventually catch up to them, the current system does tend to breed a “no consequence” attitude — “hopefully it just catches up to them before somebody gets hurt.”

Kennedy said in shoplifting cases, most of the people don’t even go to court, which results in a warrant where officers have to track them down, only for them to be released again.

“We’re spending a lot of time, money and effort to get them on a warrant and then they immediately get released again at 8 o’clock at night or 8 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “They’ll go out and do it again, then not show up for court. It doesn’t matter how many times they break a court order; they’re being released.”

Kennedy said repeat offenders have to commit the same crimes multiple times before a judge can even begin to consider holding them.

“It’s just a huge burden on the system all the way around,” he said.

Kennedy said his officers are very connected to the community and want to help everyone, but people who deserve to be locked up for everyone’s safety should be locked up.

It’s a pretty regular occurrence, he said.

“It’s getting to the point where some police departments — I’m not going to say mine — on certain warrants, a department will call and say, ‘We’ve got this guy, and he has a warrant, do you want him?’ And they’ll say ‘no,’ because it’s a waste of their manpower when they know (they’re likely to be let go).”

The reforms’ impact has extended to a statewide recruiting shortage, too, he said.

“A good candidate for a small (police department) to get their hands on is getting more and more difficult all the time, also because nobody wants to do this job,” he said, and added that this shortage and reforms are a consistent topic of discussion.

Kennedy said the reforms were done in typical New York fashion, by going way too far rather than through incremental attempts to make changes that weren’t detrimental to law enforcement.

“Seems like once it’s done here, it’s done,” he said. “You never know if there will be enough will to change.”

Chemung County Sheriff Bill Schrom agreed with much of Kennedy’s assessment and said law enforcement has changed a lot in recent years, following his 36 years of service.

“It’s probably the same story, I imagine, if you talk to any (New York) law enforcement agency,” he said, and echoed that the state rushed the changes through.

“The problem is when they sit down and brainstorm these new laws, they don’t bring the right stakeholders to the table,” Schrom said. “So, they’re not getting a different perspective and input than I think they should before they make these decisions, and it’s turned out to be just an absolute nightmare.”

Schrom said it’s resulted in a lot of frustration: “We’re dealing with the same people over and over again.”

The state implemented the law, and then several groups, such as the New York State Sheriff Association and the District Attorney’s Association, came out against it. But after the fact, it’s very difficult to undo.

“It’s always after the fact — the problem is they’ve already put everything in motion; repealing that is next to impossible,” he said. “It’s just a major undertaking, and you get stuck with what they’ve passed.”

Further, Schrom said that judges’ hands have been tied a lot more than in the past, with a lot of their discretion being taken away until several crimes have been committed.

“They’ve taken a tremendous amount of discretion away from judges, where judges could, after they’ve dealt with this person one or two times, say, ‘All right, enough is enough — I’m sick of seeing you and dealing with you, you’re going to jail,’” Schrom said. “When they take that discretion away from the judge, the judges are equally frustrated and discouraged because they have to release them, and oftentimes we end up getting blamed for that.”

Everybody’s hands are tied, he continued.

Schrom said some minimal reform has been attempted, but it’s still always the same people being arrested over and over.

In Bradford County, Wilson said he has seen more drug arrests and police chases with people coming from New York, likely due to the perception that criminal punishment is lax across the board these days.

Wilson said it’s “absolutely” the case that criminals are coming into Pennsylvania from New York and causing more crime and danger to the public.

“I can think of cases where somebody was charged in New York and has a serious offense up there where I would have thought that even New York would have required bail, but the person was nonetheless out,” he said. “I don’t like to let them go back to New York because there’s too much of a chance we won’t see them again. It happens quite frequently.”

Asked about New York police chases that ended in Bradford County earlier this year, Wilson said it’s not unheard of for police in New York to not put much effort into getting criminals back into their custody because they’re likely to be let back out.

Wilson recalled a case where he said he was told a man named Clifton Wagner had shot his girlfriend in New York, and for whatever reason, was released, and was later found in Athens or Sayre because he thought the victim was there and broke into a home looking for her.

“That sounds pretty harsh, but that’s how it’s always been expressed to me,” Wilson said. “He’s sitting in our jail for probably 10 months or so but is being prosecuted for criminal trespass. I’m told now that they may not even be going forward with the New York charges. I don’t know what the story is on that, but I have learned not to rely on other jurisdictions to do our work for us.”

Wilson said he doesn’t mind sending people to New York to answer for their crimes, but he said the concern is always that they’ll come back.

“They need to know that this is not the place for that — they need to know it’s different,” he said.

Wilson said in Pennsylvania, the two most important criteria to be released are whether they’re likely to show up to court and whether there’s a concern for public safety.

With a stricter approach, Wilson said it’s actually better for the defendant as well, because they’re not roaming free, making more poor decisions.

“If a person has a record of fleeing and eluding, running from police, that can very easily turn out to be a dangerous or even deadly situation for the officers involved, the defendant who’s involved, or maybe the innocent public as well,” he said. “So, we try to prevent that by not looking to incarcerate somebody who hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, but I am looking to protect the community.”

Tioga County Sheriff Gary Howard and Tioga County District Attorney Kirk Martin did not respond to requests for comment.

(Matt Freeze is a Senior Staff Writer, Morning Times)