NYPD commissioner talks challenges, goals for 2020

But Shea says the police force can’t fight crime on its own. He said as the number of crimes committed gets lower and lower, it becomes harder and harder to bring them down even further. Shea said that’s why the entire criminal justice system, from the cops on the beat to the district attorneys to the judges, need to work in tandem.

“The mistake that people make when talking about crime is filling the room with the police,” he said. “If you want to know about crime and the big picture, you need to look at the entire system. That is the next quantum leap in crime reduction.”

Which is what makes the bail reform laws recently enacted by lawmakers in Albany so frustrating to Shea. The commissioner believes there is a correlation between the recent uptick in crimes like burglary and auto theft and the new laws that make it harder for judges to keep criminals behind bars.

“I’ve been critical of some aspects of the bail reform, but every time I’ve spoken I’ve also said there are good aspects to the bail reform,” he said. “I understand the history, I understand what was done to try and level the playing field, making the law equal for everyone whether you have money in your bank account or not. So I agree with the spirit of the bail reform changes.

“What I’m critical of is passing sweeping law changes with little input from the people that know the most about how the criminal justice system works, who have no idealogical goals other than keeping people safe,” Shea added.

The commissioner says what is often left out of the bail reform debate is that the department is already achieving many of the goals the new laws are meant to bring about. The NYPD has cut arrests, summons are down, the city is moving forward with closing Rikers Island, and the prison population in the state is at its lowest level in years.

“All of this was true, its undeniable, before the bail reform law was enacted,” he said. “We support reform, the numbers can’t be debated. But when you are doing all of this and neighborhood policing to build up trust with communities, you now have a bail law that is resulting in crime going up significantly.”

And this all comes at a time when there have been several disturbing anti-police incidents across the city, from last summer’s water dousing of officers in Brooklyn to the rallies protesting additional cops in the subways to the shooting at a Bronx precinct. But Shea is confident the rank-and-file members of his force are up to the challenges and will conduct themselves in a professional manner.

“Am I concerned anytime there is anti-police rhetoric?” Shea said. “Absolutely I am.

“But I think the day you go into the academy, you are reminded that you better have thick skin for a lot of different reasons,” he added. “You can expect to have some verbal comments said to you literally at any point in time, and you have to be able to take it and set an example.”