​Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) joined members of the Senate and Assembly Minority Conferences, law enforcement and public safety advocates on Tuesday to call for the passing of anti-crime measures, following a rise in violence throughout New York state during the past two years.

The legislative conferences advocated for the restoration of judicial discretion to locally-elected judges, among several other proposals. Since the passage of bail reform in 2019, the ability of judges to hold lawbreakers they know to be dangerous to the community on bail has been heavily restricted. The state has seen a 46.7% increase in murders throughout the state from 2019 to 2020. Criminals released under the bail reform law have gone on to frequently reoffend, at times retaliating against victims mere hours after their pretrial release.

“If we want New York to be a place people want to live, start families and spend their money, it must first and foremost be a safe place,” said Hawley. “During our governor’s State of the State address, there was a glaring absence of any discussion of the marked rise in violence we’ve seen in our communities all across New York. So putting public safety back on the agenda for the upcoming legislative session is a priority for me and our conference as a whole.”