One of the most contentious issues in this year’s budget is public safety. Gov. Kathy Hochul wants further revisions to the bail reform law, but Democrats in the legislature are resisting.

And retail shop owners want some attention as well — they held a rally in Albany to call for a crackdown on shoplifting.

What You Need To Know

  • Store owners from the five boroughs say rampant theft is a huge problem

  • Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing for more changes to bail reform, but Democrats in the the New York State Assembly have so far resisted

  • New legislation has also been introduced to protect store workers who are assaulted when they confront thieves

Shop owners traveled to Albany on Tuesday to ask for changes to the bail laws and new legislation that would punish people who assault store workers.

“This is new legislation. This is what we did for utility workers a couple of years ago,” Democratic state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton of Staten Island said. “This would create a Class D felony, which will make it bail eligible. But honestly the intent is worker safety.”

According to the organization of store owners, the statistics are jarring: last year, merchants made 63,000 complaints about vandalism and theft.

They maintain that 327 repeat offenders account for 30% of the crimes committed, and recidivists were arrested 6,600 times last year, or about 20 times each.

“The problem is crime is through the roof,” store owner Nelson Eusebio said. “And that is reflected in our supermarkets. Our supermarkets are under assault, literally every day. People shoplifting, people aggravating our employees. People coming in with no recourse. Because they know that if they steal something the police are not going to do nothing about it.”

Hochul is asking the legislature to make new changes to the bail reform law, which was first passed in 2019. She wants to change language urging judges to use the “least restrictive means.”

“I am here to represent the voices of New Yorkers. That’s my constituency. All of New York,” Hochul said Friday. “The No. 1 concern they have is public safety. This is one dynamic. I’ve never said this is the blame. But there is an inconsistency in our law that complicates the decision-making process for judges.”

Legislators in both the state Senate and Assembly have so far rejected any changes Hochul would like to make as part of the budget due at the end of the month.

“Well, I have said that this argument has been political all along,” Carl Heastie, Democratic Speaker of the New York State Assembly, told reporters last week. “If you look recently, even in Illinois, that was the New York Republican’s dream. They have a dangerousness standard, they have everything else, but the mayor of Chicago still came in third because crime is still up.”

When asked about rampant shoplifting, legislative leaders have blamed it partly on the COVID-19 pandemic, and they say crime going up is part of a national trend and is not specific to New York.