Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan says she’s working with the U.S. Attorney for Western New York
in order to find ways of prosecuting violent gun crimes in federal court instead of state courts.
That would get around New York State’s new bail reform laws, which police say often put violent offenders back out on the street within hours to re-offend. Chief Herriott-Sullivan said the goal is simple: “When people are arrested for violent gun-type incidents, I want them to stay in jail.”
Herriott-sullivan said in a news conference that she’s also worked with the Monroe County District Attorney to look at outcomes for suspects in gun violence crimes. In many cases, she says people she’d prefer be in jail are not in jail.
Additional federal help for Rochester police during the current surge in violence is coming from Federal Marshals, who will assist in tracking down known suspects in violent incidents.
During a separate news conference Thursday, Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said gangs are the cause of much of the retaliatory violence in the city. Chief Herriott-Sullivan would not go that far, saying “I’m not saying that doesn’t exist, but at the end of the day, what I’ve got is a woman who’s been shot at 20 times, and her kids are in the back seat, and so that’s going to help our folks, that’s going to help our major crimes and our section investigations…but I want to find out how we get to those folks, how we arrest them and how we keep them in custody.