Two DAs will kayo petty summonses
The district attorneys of Manhattan and the Bronx have agreed to clear all summonses for petty offenses — so-called quality-of-life crimes — from their books after Queens Councilman Rory Lancman urged all city DAs to abandon prosecuting “broken windows” offenses.
Lancman, the head of the Council’s Justice System Committee and a candidate for Queens DA, wrote a letter to all five city district attorney offices last week expressing his concern that warrants on summonses had started to increase after a steep drop following the passage of the Criminal Justice Reform Act.
The legislation allowed cops the discretion of issuing civil citations instead of criminal ones in enforcing low-level offenses like public urination, turnstile jumping and public drinking.
“Since the passage of [the Criminal Justice Reform Act] and the full implementation of its provisions in June 2017, the number of criminal summonses issued in New York for such offenses has dropped 94.5% — from 134,902 in 2016 to 7,425 in 2018,” Lancman wrote to the DAs. “Such a drastic reduction, at a time crime around the city has fallen, makes evident how the overuse of criminal sanctions does not make us safer.”
However, the councilman pointed out that open warrants issued for not showing up to summons court, which handles these minor crimes, have ballooned to 752,118.
“Just like a major part of the legalize marijuana conversation is vacating old marijuana convictions for offenses that are no longer criminal, we think the same thing should apply to the ‘broken windows’ offenses that were decriminalized through [the the Criminal Justice Reform Act.],” Lancman said. “It would be absurd to continue to keep warrants on the books that have been likewise taken out of the criminal justice system.
DAs Darcel Clark of the Bronx and Cy Vance Jr. of Manhattan have already offered to clear 10-year-old warrants from the books, but promised they would follow through on his suggestion. “I will be working with the Office of Court Administration to set a date to dismiss all outstanding summonses for low-level offenses that were decriminalized by the Criminal Justice Reform Act in 2016. This will allow people to move on with their lives and not be hindered when seeking jobs, education opportunities or housing,” Clark said.
Vance’s spokesman said his office is still working out the details, but agrees to the effort in theory. “Our office supports Council member Lancman’s proposal to dismiss outstanding summons warrants, which is why we have moved to vacate more than 240,000 of them, and continue to do so at Clean Slate warrant forgiveness events across Manhattan. We look forward to working with our partners in the City Council, NYPD and [the Office of Court Administration] on next steps to address further outstanding warrants and the collateral consequences that they have on New Yorkers’ lives,” spokesman Justin Henry said.
Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez’s spokesman said his office received the letter and is considering it. Prosecutors from Queens and Staten Island did not respond to requests for comment.