In case you missed it:

Late last week, while debating an amendment to restrict gas and oil companies who engage in stock buybacks from leasing federal land, Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan attempted to come for Alexandria by telling her to “educate yourself” about natural gas and how it’s helped America “keep emissions low”. But our Congresswoman wasn’t having it.

Rather than admit that they’re fighting to protect corporate profits at the expense of our communities’ health and our planet’s ability to sustain us, Republicans have turned to name calling and character-based insults.

But Alexandria lets these insults fall to the wayside because she knows that our movement is on the right side of history. If we are going to protect our planet and our families, then we must move away from fossil fuels and toward green energy.

Here’s the full transcript of what Alexandria had to say about Rep. Duncan’s attack on the House floor:

“I mean I understand in this body it’s not the first time that it seems as though the opposing side can’t seem to be able to debate the issue, and so they must come after my character.”

“While I cannot control the fact that the other side seems to have made the assumption that I am uneducated, or what they may say about my worldview, one of the things that I can say is that while I may not work for Wall Street, that is true. I may not be here with the mission to increase profits for corporations, that is true.”

“My mission here is for the wellbeing and dignity of our family’s and our planet's future. For our children’s ability to live on this planet. That’s what this amendment is about. Moreover, when we talk about education, we should all take it upon ourselves in this body to educate ourselves on the science of the challenge of climate change that is before us. By around 2050 we are looking at, in western states, wildfires projected to further increase by 2 to 6 times. And that is just scratching the surface. Thank you and I yield back.”

Thank you,

Team AOC

MAYOR ADAMS LAUNCHES NEW PODCAST: ‘GET STUFF DONE-CAST’

 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today launched a new podcast — the ‘Get Stuff Done-Cast’ — a twice-monthly podcast where he will interview New Yorkers from all walks of life about the problems the city faces and the solutions to be found in the heart, hustle, humor, and heroics of the greatest city in the world. Mayor Adams also gave a sneak peek of today’s episode to New Yorkers who already signed up to receive direct communications from the city about new initiatives and policies, local events, and more. Episodes of the podcast will be available across podcast platforms including Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Apple, and more.

 

“We vowed to build an administration that talks directly to — and hears directly from — the people we serve, and that’s exactly what the new ‘Get Stuff Done-Cast' will help us do,” said Mayor Adams. “Sign up to hear directly from me and from New Yorkers from all walks of life on how we’re actually ‘Getting Stuff Done’ for our city.”

 

 

The podcast will be released twice monthly on Mondays. New Yorkers can sign up online to get podcast updates and hear directly from Mayor Adams about exclusive updates, major policies and initiatives, and local events.

U.S. Attorney Announces $22.8 Million Settlement Of Civil Fraud Lawsuit Against Vitamin Importer For Underpaying Customs Duties Owed On Products Imported Into The United States

 

International Vitamins Corporation Admits That It Misclassified Many Imports As Duty-Free And Failed To Pay Back Duties Owed

 Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, AnnMarie R. Highsmith, Executive Assistant Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) Office of Trade, and Francis Russo, Director of CBP Field Operations New York, announced today that the United States has filed and settled a civil lawsuit against International Vitamins Corporation (“IVC”), a United States-based company that imports and sells vitamins and nutritional supplements from China.  The settlement resolves claims that, for years, IVC defrauded the United States by misclassifying more than 30 of its products under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (“HTS”) in order to avoid paying customs duties and by failing to pay back duties owed to the United States even after IVC finally corrected its longstanding misclassifications.

Under the settlement agreement approved by U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, IVC will pay $22,865,055 to the United States.  As part of the settlement agreement, IVC also made admissions regarding its conduct.  IVC admitted that, between 2015 and 2019, it utilized HTS classifications for 32 products it imported from China (the “Covered Products”) that carried duty-free rates, even though those products, if accurately classified, would have been subject to the payment of duties.  IVC also admitted that even after it retained a consultant in 2018 who informed IVC that it had been misclassifying the Covered Products, IVC did not implement the correct classifications for over nine months and never remitted duties that it had underpaid to the United States because of its misclassification of the Covered Products.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “IVC engaged in a fraudulent scheme to avoid customs duties owed to the United States by misclassifying many of its products as duty-free when importing them from China.  Worse yet, IVC made no effort to right its wrongs even after acknowledging internally that it had underpaid millions of dollars of duties owed.  This Office is committed to combatting customs fraud by holding companies accountable when they attempt to avoid paying what they owe when importing goods from abroad.”

CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner AnnMarie R. Highsmith said: “This case reflects a pattern of behavior in which this company knowingly misclassified imported merchandise to avoid paying duties.  They did so despite clear prior rulings by CBP on the correct classification for this specific type of product.  Their failure to adhere to the customs laws, which are designed to protect U.S. revenue and U.S. consumers, will cost the company more than $22.8 million under the terms of a civil settlement with the United States.  The dedication of the men and women of the CBP Office of Trade, the Office of Chief Counsel New York, and the United States Attorney’s Office to protect a fair and competitive trade environment is vital to facilitating lawful trade.”

CBP Director of Field Operations Francis Russo said: “U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided the critical link to an ongoing investigation into an attempt to circumvent payment of proper duties.  This case serves as a great example of collaborative law enforcement efforts to uncover and dismantle enterprises that seek to defraud the United States government for personal gain while causing economic harm to their competitors.”

As alleged in the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:

From January 1, 2015, through September 13, 2019 (the “Covered Period”), IVC made thousands of entries of the Covered Products (consisting of raw and bulk vitamins and nutritional supplements) into the United States from China while materially misreporting to CBP the duty rates applicable to those products under the HTS.  IVC knowingly submitted or caused its customs brokers to submit entry documents to CBP that contained false classifications of the Covered Products in order to avoid paying duties owed and failed to remit underpaid duties even after IVC confirmed that the classifications it had used were incorrect.

IVC utilized inaccurate HTS classifications for the Covered Products despite receiving repeated notices from CBP informing IVC that the classifications it had been using for similar goods were erroneous.  After continuing to use the incorrect HTS classifications for more than three years, IVC retained a consultant to analyze the propriety of its classifications.  Even after the consultant confirmed that IVC had been misclassifying the Covered Products under the HTS, IVC persisted in using its incorrect classifications for these goods for over nine months.  Throughout, IVC provided the incorrect classifications to its customs brokers, knowing that they would rely on those classifications when preparing documents to be submitted to CBP on IVC’s behalf.

When IVC finally adopted the correct classifications for the Covered Products, IVC made no effort to pay back the duties that it had long owed to the United States because of its pervasive misclassifications.  As a result, IVC underpaid millions of dollars of duties owed to CBP for its imports.

In the settlement agreement, IVC admitted, acknowledged, and accepted responsibility for the following conduct:

• During the Covered Period, IVC’s customs brokers used information provided by IVC to prepare and submit customs entry summaries to CBP relating to imports of the Covered Products.  IVC knew that its customs brokers would rely on the information it provided when classifying the Covered Products and preparing the entry summaries to be submitted to CBP. 
• During the Covered Period, IVC provided its customs brokers with HTS classifications for the Covered Products that applied to medicaments and vitamins and that would incur no duties.  The Covered Products should have been classified as food preparations subject to the payment of duties.  IVC continued providing its customs brokers with these inaccurate HTS classifications even after CBP issued Notices of Action to IVC in 2016 and 2017 regarding classification errors made by IVC for similar non-Covered Products, namely, incorrectly classifying the similar non-Covered Products as duty-free when the correct classifications were for food preparations subject to duties.
• In the fall of 2018, IVC retained a consultant to review the HTS classifications IVC was using for all of the products IVC was then importing into the United States, including the Covered Products.  After analyzing the 134 products, the consultant provided IVC with the correct HTS classifications for each of the Covered Products.  The corrected codes carried higher duty rates than the HTS classifications IVC was using at the time.  As a result, IVC had underpaid duties on the Covered Products.
• IVC did not implement the corrected codes for the Covered Products that were imported into the United States on entry documentation submitted to CBP until around September 13, 2019.  Soon after, an IVC executive explained his view “that as each item is reviewed and corrected,” IVC had “a very strong go forward but the clean up is tough.”  IVC never remitted the duties it had underpaid for the Covered Products, apart from in response to several discrete Notices of Action.
• As a result, IVC, through its customs brokers, misclassified the Covered Products on entry documents filed with CBP and, throughout the Covered Period, routinely underpaid customs duties on the Covered Products. 

In connection with the filing of the lawsuit and settlement, the Government joined a whistleblower lawsuit that had been previously filed under seal pursuant to the False Claims Act.

Mr. Williams thanked CBP for its investigative efforts and ongoing support and assistance with the case.

NYC Comptroller Lander Releases Annual Report on City’s $43 Billion in FY22 Contracts

 

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander published the annual report on the City’s contracting, providing a detailed overview by procurement method and agency of the contracts the City entered into in Fiscal Year 2022. New York City remains one of the largest contracting jurisdictions in the country, procuring $43.23 billion worth of goods, services, and construction, while also entering into revenue agreements worth $112.82 million in FY22. The City (Comptroller’s office as well as agencies) registered 17,832 new procurement and revenue contracts in FY22.

“From opening the doors for a homeless shelter to upgrading school facilities, the contract process is one critical way the City gets stuff done. Through contracts with vendors, City dollars lift our social services sector, create opportunity for our minority and women-owned businesses, and build essential infrastructure. Taking a 360 view of the last year’s contracts is an important step to ensure our procurement processes generate the best value for New Yorkers and reflect our ideals of fairness, integrity, and equity,” said Comptroller Brad Lander.

“I am immensely proud of our team for registering tens of thousands of contract actions in the last fiscal year with an eye towards integrity and opportunity,” said Charlette Hamamgian, Deputy Comptroller for Contracts and Procurement. “This last fiscal year’s registered contracts mean kids get transportation to school, dogs get parks to play in, and older adults get centers for community connection. New York’s contracting process is integral to many of our city’s most vital services and allows New Yorkers to thrive.”

The largest share of the City’s procurement by value in FY22 was contracted through competitive bidding methods, totaling $19.7 billion, designed to ensure quality goods and services and the best value for the City. Agencies may use limited or non-competitive procurement methods for circumstances when full competition is neither practical or possible, due to time, market, or legal constraints. Over 82% of the City’s FY22 procurement dollars went through less than 10 city agencies, with the Department of Education at the top of the list with multi-year agreements for food, classroom supplies, and bussing services. The ten largest contracts by procurement value include goods, services or construction that will be provided over the course of decades, including energy agreements and shelters that will run through the 2050s.

Across Fiscal Years 2020 to 2022, Mayoral agencies (primarily under the previous administration) used emergency executive authority to enact 886 new COVID-19 contracts, valuing $6.24 billion, relating to homeless shelters, emergency hotels, staffing, personal protective equipment (PPE), food, supplies, testing services, and ventilators. Additionally, the administration processed 774 contract modifications and 96 task orders since March 2020.

Comptroller Lander and the Bureau of Contracts Administration are actively working with the Adams administration to streamline, speed up, and maintain oversight over the arduous and cumbersome procurement process through their Joint Task Force to Get Nonprofits Paid on Time and the Capital Process Reform Taskforce. First convened by both the Comptroller and Mayor during the 2021 transition period, the Joint Task Force to Get Nonprofits Paid on Time aims to better manage the nonprofit contracting and procurement process, increase accountability and transparency, and jump start solving long-standing issues in city governance that impact the delivery of services to New Yorkers. The Capital Process Reform Task Force, convened in April 2022 by former First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo, is undertaking a comprehensive review of the city’s capital process with the goal of developing recommendations to improve public infrastructure that is both on-time and on-budget.

Under the New York City Charter, the Comptroller’s office is responsible for reviewing and approving City contracts and agreements before they are legally effective. Once a contract arrives at the Comptroller’s office for registration, the office has up to 30 days to ensure that appropriate funds exist for the City to pay the vendors, confirm that the City agency followed the procurement rules, and to verify that there was no corruption in the decision-making process. The Comptroller’s registration authority is separate and distinct from City agency decisions on how to provide contracted goods or services, selecting vendors and determining whether specific vendors are fit to contract with the City (unless the vendor is disbarred or corruption is found in the decision-making process). In addition to a share of new procurement and revenue contracts, the Comptroller’s office also registers contract modifications and task orders, which play a key role in keeping goods and services flowing.

The report includes a primer on City contracting, which provides an overview of the process and vendor selection methods. You can read the Annual Summary of Contracts Report here.

Third Avenue Business Improvement District - New Data Released, HUB Leads NYC Recovery

 

The “New” New York Panel was launched in May 2022 by Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams to examine the future of New York City and the region’s economy. Over six months, the panel created a set of 40 proposals intended to make New York City the best place to work and serve as a roadmap for the city’s future. The governor and mayor announced these proposals in December 2022 as the Making New York Work for Everyone Action Plan. New York City’s business districts have been economic engines for the entire region. New York City’s growth in recent decades is emblematic of the nationwide trend of re-urbanization, reflecting the advantages of proximity, agglomeration, and urban living sought by many. Since 1980, the New York City metropolitan area has seen job growth shift from the suburbs back to the city. Business districts, including Flushing, Bronx HUB, Jamaica, Harlem, and DUMBO represent an increasingly important component of New York City’s economic diversity and dynamism. In 2019, 64 percent of business establishments in the city were located outside of the four Core Employment Hubs, with establishment growth outside of employment hub areas outpacing growth in the Core Employment Hubs almost every year for the last decade. The data is strong and the South Bronx HUB at 149th St & Third Ave is leading NYC's economic recovery & growth. Consumer spending is up 59% Foot traffic is up 14% 49 New Businesses in 2022 Opened over 3,000 units of housing "The Bronx's HUB is resilient - very much like the community that gives it vibrancy," said Michael Brady, CEO of Third Avenue Business Improvement District. "When the pandemic hit our organization worked very hard to course correct and set an example for economic recovery for local economies throughout New York State.  The data from the New, New York panel shows the strength of our community and the ability to stabilize and grow in the midst of crisis. Now we need continued resources, infrastructure upgrades, and for government to keep in mind the innovation that got us through a global pandemic - we can not go back on things that work.  We must truly embody that we are the City of equity - a City of Yes for all people." Learn More - Click Here

Statement of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams on the Conviction of Billy Ortega

 

 "Billy Ortega ran a drug delivery service that delivered fentanyl, killing three victims on a single day.  Worse yet, Ortega was fully aware that a customer had previously overdosed from the deadly fentanyl Ortega laced into his product, yet continued sending the drugs to his victims.  As a unanimous jury determined, Ortega will now be held accountable for the victims’ tragic and untimely deaths.  This case exemplifies that the national fentanyl epidemic continues to claim lives and inflict havoc on families from all walks of life.  Drug dealers don’t label their drugs as poison, they just sell them with indifference to the tragedy left in their wake.  Combatting the fentanyl epidemic in our communities is one of my Office’s top priorities."

New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce - IT Seminar Presented by Donnelly & Moore Fordham University Center for Cybersecurity

 

An In-Depth Discussion of Cyber Security in Insider Threat, Software Supply Chain, Geopolitical Threats, Ransomware, Corporate Systems and Career Pathways

Presented by

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 12pm – 1pm Via Zoom

Click here to RSVP

Speaker

MANNY CANCEL Senior Vice President, Chief Executive Officer E-ISAC Manny Cancel assumed the role as NERC senior vice president and chief executive officer of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) in January 2020. He is responsible for the management and oversight of the E-ISAC and leading security operations and information sharing, threat intelligence and analysis, and stakeholder engagement initiatives designed to protect critical electricity infrastructure in North America. Mr. Cancel also serves as the E-ISAC’s key representative to important constituencies, such as the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC), government partners, and key industry groups and leads the E-ISAC’s strategic planning initiatives. Prior to joining NERC, Mr. Cancel served as Con Edison’s chief information officer (CIO) leading all aspects of information technology, including cyber security initiatives. In this capacity, he also supported various industry initiatives, serving as chair of the sector’s Cyber Mutual Assistance Program and supporting the Member Executive Committee (MEC), an advisory group formed out of the ESCC that provides guidance to the E-ISAC. Prior to assuming the role of CIO at Con Edison, Mr. Cancel held various roles over his 39-year career, including leadership roles in operations, customer service, audit, and information technology.

MAYOR’S OFFICE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE DIRECTOR LOGAN, NYPD CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT MADDREY TO TESTIFY AT JOINT LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE DATA

 

MOCJ Director Logan: “New York City has a recidivist problem. And that recidivist problem is driving much of the crime we see today.”  

NYPD Chief of Department Maddrey: “…top 327 shoplifting recidivists account for about 30 percent of all retail theft arrests. Forty-six percent of these 327 individuals have prior felony convictions.”   

New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Director Deanna Logan and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey will today provide testimony at the New York State joint legislative hearing on criminal justice. Also attending today’s hearing will be Molly Slothower, executive director of research innovation at MOCJ and Chief Michael LiPetri, chief of crime control strategies for the NYPD.

A copy of their remarks, as prepared, can be found below.

MOCJ Director Deanna Logan:

Good morning, Chairs Bailey, Dinowitz, Salazar, Dilan, Hoylman-Sigal, and Lavine. I’m Deanna Logan, director of the mayor’s office of criminal justice (MOCJ). I’m joined today by Molly Slothower, executive director of research innovation, and our colleagues from the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, Chief of Department, and Chief Michael LiPetri, chief of crime control strategies. We are here representing the city of New York’s public safety agencies on behalf of Mayor Eric Adams.  Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony to your committees on the crime data trends and needs that we are seeing in the City of New York.

MOCJ advises the mayor on criminal justice policy and is the mayor’s representative to the courts, district attorneys, defenders, and state criminal justice agencies, among others. MOCJ works with law enforcement, city agencies, not-for-profits, foundations, and the public to implement effective strategies that make the city safer by improving system coordination. MOCJ brings together community and institutional stakeholders to address the systemic issues that undermine the safety and stability of our neighborhoods. MOCJ strives to move our city forward by providing better resources and the access to supports needed to promote and maintain healthy communities for all New Yorkers. Our office is committed to implementing Mayor Adams’ vision for a safe and just city for all New Yorkers.

Mayor Adams is a longtime advocate for criminal justice reforms that help to establish a fairer system — indeed, it’s been his life’s work. The legislature’s reforms have made it less likely that people will remain in jail because of poverty alone, and they make it possible for accused individuals to remain in the community as their cases move through the legal system. The reforms included important changes that on balance helped to create a fairer justice system. The reforms have also made the collection and review of data critical to analyzing the impact of the reforms and to making any targeted changes necessary to realize a just system that is also safer for New Yorkers.  We are excited about the legislature’s commitment to proactively review data and its collection, because data not only identifies challenges, but also illuminates the pathway to solutions.

Under Mayor Adams’s leadership, the city’s public safety agencies have begun unprecedented collaboration to align crime data across city systems. MOCJ, NYPD, and the Department of Correction (DOC) work together to coordinate data systems to produce a more accurate picture of public safety within the criminal justice framework of New York City. MOCJ is also in discussion with the Department of Probation (DOP) identify ways to collaboratively analyze and review data that is consistent with the privacy protections for young people under which DOP operates. Additionally, MOCJ has a longstanding relationship with OCA’s data team that both drives the data that is available and helps to analyze criminal justice trends. In addition to our sister city and state agencies, MOCJ also works with partner service providers and justice-involved people to obtain, review, and analyze quantitative and qualitative data from the organizations that work most closely with those in need.

Our unprecedented collaboration across multiple data streams has allowed us to drill down into our city’s most challenging public safety matters. This deep dive reveals something clearly: New York City has a recidivist problem. And that recidivist problem is driving much of the crime we see today. 

We identified approximately 2,000 individuals who have a recent persistent pattern of interaction with the criminal legal system and go on to commit a violent felony. An even larger number of people with a recent persistent pattern go on to commit other crimes. This small portion of the population causes a disproportionate amount of New York City’s crime, and reflects a serious recidivism problem.

Our more collaborative approach to the city’s data also exposed gaps in the data that we use to develop and implement new and innovative solutions for the criminal justice system. These gaps in data make it more difficult to accomplish the precision and accuracy in accountability that the reforms sought to encourage. In the current system, it is difficult to determine why a case was dismissed — but the data does show that dismissals have increased substantially. The data shows that the percentage of cases that were dismissed increased from 41 percent to 62 percent between 2019 and 2022 and that case dismissals for misdemeanors increased from 48 percent  to 74 percent , and felony dismissals increased from 21 percent  to 35 percent  during that period. In order to provide an accurate view of how and why cases are dismissed, we would like to see more specific information on dismissals.  Currently, it is impossible to know if a case has been dismissed because of lack of timely information, or if the defense and prosecution worked together to produce a solution that results in an alternative to incarceration for the defendant. Additionally, the data shows that the length of time from arraignment to disposition has increased from 330 days in 2019 to 424 days in 2022.  This may mean that dangerous people are out on the streets longer and innocent people are waiting longer to clear their names.

Availability of more specific information would significantly reduce the use of guesswork when trying to develop remedies for addressing the case backlog. More importantly, better information allows the legislature and the city to appropriately allocate the resources that create a safer and fairer justice system for all.  We are committed to working with all our partners to strike the right balance between enforcement that promotes accountability and the interventions that afford healing and rehabilitation — all in pursuit of both safety and justice.

I’ll now turn it over to Chief Maddrey.

NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey:

Good morning, Chairs Bailey, Dinowitz, Salazar, Dilan, Hoylman-Sigal, Lavine and members of the Senate and Assembly. I am Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of department for the NYPD. On behalf of Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell, I am pleased to be here today to testify before your committees regarding criminal justice data.

One of the most vital tasks that we, as government officials, have is ensuring that the people of New York are safe. Everything that is necessary for a prosperous society flows from this simple fact. Declines in public safety prevent our citizens from enjoying access to public spaces, make it difficult for our children to learn, negatively affect our physical and mental health, and significantly impact the quality of life in the city. Unfortunately, we saw significant increases in serious crime over the last three years, which lasted until we started reversing that trend in the last quarter of 2022.

While driving down crime is a paramount concern for the city of New York, we know that we must ensure that we do so in a way that is both fair and just. The NYPD has spent the last decade working with our community partners and elected officials to ensure that our own policies and procedures maximize fairness while protecting public safety. This process has required that we constantly monitor how we police this city and continuously make adjustments to ensure that we meet our goal of making New York the safest and most just city in the country.  

The NYPD has acknowledged that aspects of the criminal justice system, as it existed in 2019, were unfair, and that the legislature was correct to make changes. We testified in front of the State to this fact in February 2020 and again in October 2021. I know that the Adams administration and the NYPD stand ready to work with the legislature to make necessary adjustments that ensure that the needs of those who are accused of crimes are balanced with the needs of victims, who too often feel that they have been deprived of justice. 

In order to strike this correct balance, it is imperative that we are able to evaluate the impact that various reforms have had on the criminal justice system and adjust policies accordingly. Incomplete data has vexed many policy makers who have attempted to tackle the reason behind crime increases that began in 2020. The NYPD and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice have analyzed the data that is available. Our data shows that there are a small number of individuals who cause a significant amount of harm. It is these individuals who we need to work together to address. Using court data, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice found that only approximately 2,000 Individuals who have had a recent persistent pattern of interaction with the criminal justice system and subsequently commit a serious violent crime, are responsible for an outsized share of crime in the city. Our data, which analyzes data at the point of arrest, paints a similar picture.  It shows that the top 327 shoplifting recidivists account for about 30 percent of all retail theft arrests. 46 percent  of these 327 individuals have prior felony convictions. In 2022, 25 percent  of people arrested for burglary and 17.9 percent  of people arrested for grand larceny were re-arrested for another felony within 60 days. So far this year, half of the people we have arrested for a burglary are out on other felony cases. The city is committed to working with the state to identify ways to ensure these small groups of persistent offenders stop their cycle of re-offense.

Another troubling trend is the increase in juvenile involvement in crime, both as a perpetrator and as a victim. The number of juvenile shooting victims has doubled since 2017 (75 v. 153).  That is 10 percent of all shooting victims in New York City. The number of juveniles who have been identified as a shooter has increased 156 percent  since 2017 (48 v. 123). There has been a 62 percent increase in juvenile gun arrests since 2017 (275 v. 448) and sadly 24 percent  of youth arrested with a gun in 2020 were involved in a shooting within 2 years, either as the victim or the shooter. Unfortunately, data silos and sealed records make it difficult to analyze case outcomes and work with partner agencies to intercede and to help these children. How can we measure the success of our efforts?

As we do our best to analyze existing data, there are troubling gaps that sometimes make it difficult to get an accurate picture of what is happening in the criminal justice system. For example, these data gaps have made it difficult to understand exactly what is causing a significant increase in case dismissals in our courts. We do know that the percentage of cases that are dismissed has significantly increased since 2019. These represent a significant problem for justice, and have undermined the public’s trust in the criminal justice system. However, we do not have accurate data on what, exactly is driving these dramatic increases in case dismissals. We are left using anecdotal evidence about the ways in which discovery reforms has affected the efficiency of the criminal justice system. More and better data would allow us to pinpoint where changes need to be made.  

Analyzing crime data is a complex topic, but I think we can all agree that the more data that we have, the better off that we are.

I now turn it back to Director Logan.

MOCJ Director Deanna Logan:

Members of the legislature, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. We are confident that together we can develop cohesive metrics that afford more transparency to the operation of the criminal justice system. With the right tools, we can effectively and efficiently direct the investment of resources needed to ensure a fairer criminal justice system that we owe our constituents. We look forward to working with the legislature to ensure that New York is both safe and fair. We welcome any questions that you may have.