Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Tuesday called on Bronx and Manhattan prosecutors to crack down on recidivist criminals going through their courts and “reevaluate any blanket policies” that put them back on the streets without consequences.
“These [blanket policies] are not isolated mistakes or unintended consequences,” Tisch said at the City Law Breakfast at New York Law School in lower Manhattan, accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Bronx DA Darcel Clark of being too quick to decline prosecution or resolve cases through an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, meaning the case will go away if the offender keeps their nose clean for a few months. “These are choices, which means we can easily change them,” the commissioner said.
Tisch said she has challenged both Bragg and Clark, whom she called “important partners” in fighting crime, to change any policies that “make the revolving door spin faster.”
“Too often, cases are declined and resolved with an ACD even when there’s a pattern of repeat offending,” she said. “That happens without a careful consideration of public safety. It sends a wrong message to the victims, offenders and to the officers doing the work.”
Tisch’s speech at Thursday’s breakfast was temporarily interrupted when a half-dozen protesters jumped up in the audience, demanding she fire Lt. Jonathan Rivera for fatally shooting Allen Feliz during a traffic stop in the Bronx back in 2019. An NYPD administrative judge recommended Rivera be terminated, but Tisch has yet to sign off on it. The protesters, supporters of Feliz’s family, were escorted out of the room before the commissioner continued.
The top cop’s remarks come two days after she blasted Clark for declining to prosecute some cases, and said the Bronx was the “absolute best place” to steal a car.
“Chances are good you’ll only be charged with misdemeanor possession of stolen property and then sent on your way,” Tisch told members at the Citizens Crime Commission during its annual breakfast in Midtown Tuesday, without naming Clark. “Auto theft is a felony, so it needs to be charged as a felony. And when you don’t charge appropriately, you end up leading the city in stolen cars by a wide margin.”
Car thefts in the Bronx were up 4% for the first quarter of the year while the rate dropped by more than 12% citywide, Tisch said.
Clark has publicly disagreed with Commissioner Tisch and Mayor Adams’ ongoing subway crackdown — in which a focus on homeless issues and minor infractions, such as sleeping across seats, has led to the arrest of many offenders wanted for other crimes — as well as the creation of a new NYPD quality of life enforcement division, saying these new efforts are another form of “broken windows” policing where cops enforce violations and minor misdemeanors in the belief that not doing so fosters a sense of disorder that can lead to more serious crimes.
“Now is not the time to retreat to broken windows policing,” Clark said at a City Council budget hearing in March. “Now is the time to look ahead to 21st-century solutions aimed at keeping the Bronx safe. We start by identifying the root causes of crime and addressing the underlying conditions that lead to a cycle of violence and recidivism.”
On Thursday, Tisch said that, while crime is down, the city is facing a “surging recidivism problem,” thanks, in part, to changes in the state’s discovery laws. Tisch and others charge that current discovery laws — governing exchange of evidence between prosecutors and defenders in criminal cases — are far too burdensome for prosecutors.
Of those arrested in the first three months of this year, 39% have been re-arrested at least once — a 46% jump over the first quarter of 2018, when bail and discovery reform laws didn’t exist, Tisch said. And about 21% of those arrested in the first three months of the year have been arrested at least three times.
“When a case falls apart on a technicality, the victim is retraumatized,” Tisch said about the dangers of the new discovery laws. She said state lawmakers are “close to a deal” on changing the laws, but she hasn’t seen the proposal.
“If [the changes] are strong, I will say so,” she said. “If it’s not, I’ll say that, too. I’m a straight shooter and this is not a time for window dressing and half measures.”
Officials at the Bronx DA’s Office said Clark has repeatedly gone to Albany about tweaking discovery laws and that the Bronx DA has a “productive partnership” with the NYPD’s Auto Crime Unit, which has resulted in “several long-term investigations of car theft crews and organized theft rings.”
