MIDDLETOWN, NJ — On Tuesday morning, Middletown Mayor Tony Perry and Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden held a press conference outside the new Middletown Township building, to announce they filed a legal complaint with the state over bail reform.
The complaint is an attempt to have the state of New Jersey reimburse Middletown for the extra costs the town has incurred battling car thefts.
In August, Middletown deployed two permanent squad cars at the entrances of Exit 109 and 114 to the Garden State Parkway. Those squad cars have since been removed, but Perry said this week he estimates Middletown has spent an additional $325,000 fighting car thefts and home burglaries.
“Extra police patrols on the street; one officer completely assigned full time to the State Police’s Auto Theft Task Force,” said Perry. “These are all expenses Middletown is incurring at the taxpayers’ expense.”
Middletown Police and the county sheriff also recently started using license plate readers to identify stolen cars, which is a new and expensive technology.
“It’s costing us the ability to invest more in paving roadways, maintaining our parks and preserving open space, since the funds need to be reallocated,” said Perry. “You can’t put a price tag on public safety, but it should come at the cost of the state. This is their disaster of a law — fix it or pay for it.”
Perry specifically filed the complaint with the Council on Local Mandates, which is this government board meant to resolve issues raised by New Jersey towns or counties.
The Council will likely hold a hearing on Middletown’s request.
Perry and Golden, both Republican, said they think New Jersey has seen a surge in car thefts because of bail reform, which was a statewide law passed in 2017 that immediately releases those accused of car theft or burglary back onto the streets, instead of holding them in jail on a cash or bond bail.
As 2022 drew to a close, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and State Police released data that showed car theft in New Jersey rose nine percent that year compared to 2021, and rose 41 percent from a record low in 2020.
However, Monmouth County saw a 104 percent increase in car thefts last year, according to the county sheriff.
Last year, more than 600 cars in Monmouth County were stolen. In 2017 — the year bail reform was enacted — Monmouth County saw fewer than 140 car thefts per year. The number of car thefts has increased incrementally by more than 100 each year since 2017, said Golden.
Perry and Golden also called bail reform an “unfunded mandate.”
“What’s an unfounded mandate? It’s when the state of New Jersey passes a law that incurs a costs to a county, municipality or school board,” said Perry. “The county or town had no say in the passage of bail reform, and yet we are the ones responsible for paying for it. That’s an unfunded mandate. What makes me angry is there are lots of examples of unfunded mandates, but they don’t all put people’s lives in danger.”
For the past year now, Perry has warned that the surge in car thefts may very well result in someone — either a homeowner or a criminal suspect — being killed.
“At what point does an intruder break into ‘the wrong house,’ or is confronted by a resident?” said Perry. “I don’t want to be the mayor standing outside a crime scene, or have to look at kids who just had their parent killed in a crime. How did this happen? We have set the tone in the state of New Jersey that criminals can get away with things, and they are not held accountable for their actions.”
Also on Tuesday, Perry launched this public petition, SafeStreetsNJ.com, which asks Trenton lawmakers to reverse bail reform. The petition “demands state legislators revise current bail reform policies and institute stricter legal consequences.” Perry urged members of the public to sign it.
Source link