Monroe County law enforcement officers respond to bail reform in budget - RochesterFirst
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – In Rochester, bail reform remains a big topic of conversation. Local lawmakers say they support revisions, but haven’t landed on an agreement just yet.
In Monroe County, some in law enforcement say they’re frustrated. They say the entire time reforms were being discussed, there’s been no seat for them at the table.
Elements of the proposed deal allows judges to require more people to post bail, while waiting for trial, instead of being released on an appearance ticket.
It primarily deals with repeat offenders and offenses relating to the use, sale or possession of illegal guns.
News 8 spoke to Assemblymembers Brian Manktelow and Harry Bronson who support these changes.
But they’re not seeing the same support, in other parts of the state
‘I think we need to roll it back a whole lot more, I think a lot of the downstate members of the city area are deadest against doing that, they have a totally different situation there, again one size doesn’t fit all in New York State, we are so diverse so different,” said Manktelow.
“Lets recognize that the level of violence in our streets and particularly in Rochester is absolutely unacceptable, we got to do a lot of things to work on that and keep families safe,” said Bronson.
Changes in the budget directly affect local police officers. But when we asked Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter for his thoughts, he responded with this.
“I’m the lead law enforcement officer in the county, I don’t even know what those tweaks are, right we don’t have a seat at the table.”
Baxter says when the news broke a few weeks ago, police officers were never brought in the loop.
“We’re out there we’re chasing kids with the guns picking up family members that have been shot, pursuing those wanted out of state,” said Baxter.
Rochester Police Chief David Smith says he’s written a letter of input to the governor — hoping his ideas are read and accepted.
“Some adjustments have been made, I think more need to be made,” said Smith.
“When you enact a program sometimes there’s unintended consequences those need to be addressed.”
Bronson says on the other hand they have been having conversations with officers and stakeholders.
All parties seem to agree the inherent goal of bail reform is important – but there is room for improvement.
source: https://www.rochesterfirst.com/monroe-county/monroe-county-law-enforcement-officers-respond-to-bail-reform-in-budget/
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