NYCLU Statement on NYPD Press Conference Linking Bail to Crime Stats

NEW YORK — Today, New York Police Department Commissioner Shea and Mayor de Blasio hosted a press conference linking the states recently passed bail reforms to crime statistics from the first month of this year.

The New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement from Policy Counsel, Nicole Triplett:

“Commissioner Shea and Mayor de Blasio should be more focused on ensuring our new bail law is being followed properly rather than manipulating statistics to fit their misguided narrative that giving low-income New Yorkers the same privileges as wealthier people is somehow linked to crime. For the past two decades, New York City has reduced both its jail population and the use of cash bail, resulting in some of the lowest crime rates we have ever seen. No correlation could be or should be made to reforms that have been in place for only one month. We cannot let the distortions, falsehoods and purposeful fear-mongering that has spread over the past few weeks discredit these long-overdue changes.”