The head of the NYPD has railed against the state’s progressive bail reforms laws, which she said have led to a “revolving door” system where repeat offenders are released back onto the streets before police can even finish paperwork for the perps.
NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while overall crime in the city has plummeted over the last three months, serial violent offenders are still wreaking havoc on innocent New Yorkers due to a recidivism problem – and she singled out the case of one fiend with dozens of past arrests who attempted to rape a woman on a train last week as a prime example of the law making the city more dangerous.
She also said the force is still reeling from the “defund the police” movement with police leaders “practically begging people to take the exam” and is proposing lowering the college credits required to join the force. Tisch also said the NYPD would prosecute crimes regardless of immigration and would not participate in civil immigration enforcement – meaning deportations — in line with local laws.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has railed against the state’s 2020 bail reforms laws which she said has led to a “revolving door” system where repeat offenders are released back onto the streets. (REUTERS/Jeenah Moon)
“New York state law enacted in 2020 rendered our criminal justice system a high-speed revolving door, putting violent offenders back on our streets over and over again,” Tisch said on Wednesday at a breakfast for the Association for a Better New York, a non-profit group which aims to improve the economic and social conditions of residents.
“As the mayor and I have said, your cops are out there doing their jobs, and in 2024, they made the most felony arrests in 26 years. But before they can even finish that paperwork, they are immediately returned to the neighborhood and the people that they just victimized.”
“It’s demoralizing. It’s unsustainable, and it defies common sense.”
She said that the NYPD last year made the most felony arrests in 26 years but many were cut loose by the criminal justice system, she said.
Tisch raged at the case of career criminal Tyreke Martin who has 70 prior arrests in the past, including for allegedly bashing a 2-year-old girl with a suitcase in Manhattan, according to the New York Post.
Repeat offender Carlton McPherson is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD 25th Precinct station house on March 26, 2024, in Manhattan, New York. McPherson was charged with murder for randomly shoving a victim onto the tracks. (Barry Williams for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Martin was arrested last week after Tisch said he tried to rape a woman after assaulting her, but before the incident, he had an arrest warrant pending for punching a woman in the face. When police arrested him for the bench warrant, the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute the case, and then a judge vacated his warrant.
“What are we doing? Tisch asked. “This just can’t keep happening.”
She said that in 2024, the number of suspects arrested three or more times increased by 61% for burglary, 64% for shoplifting, 71% for grand larceny, 83% for robberies and 5,019% for auto theft.
“I am channeling the voice of virtually every NYPD cop and everyday New Yorkers when I say enough is enough,” Tisch raged. “Criminals in New York City. Criminals in New York City, including violent repeat offenders, continue to be given every courtesy and the people of the city suffer as a result.”
Photo of 61-year-old Simon Martial, who allegedly pushed a woman to her death on a NYC platform (WNYW)
Tisch said that despite the recidivism problem, February will mark the third straight month of double-digit declines in citywide index crime. So far this year, overall major crime is down more than 15%, she said.
Despite these gains, she said the force is in the midst of a hiring crisis problem, and blamed the lack of recruits on the defund the police movement, which started in 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“This is not a budget problem. Mayor Adams has given us all the resources we need and greenlit every class we wanted to bring in, but the applicants just aren’t there. It wasn’t that long ago when people would wait years to get the call to join the academy, and every incoming class was full to capacity.”
Kamel Hawkins, a repeat offender, was charged with attempted murder for allegedly shoving a 45-year-old man onto subway tracks while a train approached last month. (MTA)
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“Now we are practically begging people to take the exam, and when they pass, we are scrambling to get them hired as quickly as possible.”
She said that police on the beat had seen abuse hurled at them, given the toxic rhetoric that emanated from the defunding movement.
“A lot of the rhetoric aimed at our police is vile, and the pendulum has swung too far away from what I consider to be the most important and noble job anyone could do,” Tisch said. “And we must swing it back because it’s quite simple. More cops on patrol make our city safer.”
