A motion filed by public defenders in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD of illegally using sealed criminal court records in a political move meant to argue that bail reform was causing a rise in repeat crime.
“Our criminal justice is insane,” Adams said at the press conference, referring to a “wave of recidivism.”
Arrest records are automatically sealed in New York state if the charges are resolved in a defendant’s favor, like through dismissal, acquittal at trial, or a downgrade to a violation. Law enforcement agencies can ask judges to break the seal, but easily accessible police databases also show limited information about prior sealed arrests.
The bail reform controversy has been bubbling in the city since two state laws signed in 2019 sought to change a decades-old system in which poor people are forced to stay in jail while awaiting trial while wealthier people facing the same charges could post bail and get released. During the August press conference, Adams himself acknowledged that city attorneys wouldn’t let him state the names of the 10 people in his report: “Trust me, I want to. You know, sometimes I don’t know why we hire lawyers, you know?” But officials did release information on locations, charges and dates of their sealed arrests.
While city attorneys acknowledged that the court mandated that the NYPD stop using sealed records for investigative reasons, they also said the agency is not precluded from “compiling and disclosing data for purposes of influencing the Legislature” to roll back bail reform.
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