Riverhead council members discuss ‘bail reform’ and cooperation with ICE

Two Riverhead Town Board members during last week’s work session called attention to state laws and policies they said negatively affect policing. 

After listening to Police Chief Ed Frost’s presentation of the police department’s July and August monthly reports, Council Member Bob Kern asked Police Chief Ed Frost if he can report data about releases without arraignments after arrests. Kern frequently raises the “bail reform” issue during work session discussions with Frost, and at other times as well. 

Kern asked whether the department could report how many people arrested or involved in reported incidents were released the same day. Frost said the department can track that, because it already tracks how many people are held overnight.

“I think that would be really important for the public to see at this point because the cost of that is ridiculous,” Kern said. “I know it puts a huge burden on you guys, because, from my understanding, you can arrest the same person two or three times a week, and they know there’s no ramifications, and they’re back out on the street,” Kern said. 

“I would say that’s the larger portion, to be honest,” Frost answered.

Kern said it’s “a huge problem” and it’s important “for residents to realize that’s why we increased the police force.”

Frost noted that police officers still have to do all the same, time-consuming paperwork, which can take hours of work,  as if the case will be prosecuted and end up before a grand jury.

State laws enacted in 2019 eliminated cash bail and pretrial detention for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies, requiring judges to release defendants on their own recognizance or under non-monetary conditions. Those laws went into effect in 2020. They were amended in 2022 and 2023 to give local judges more discretion in deciding whether to require cash bail.

Council Member Denise Merrifield followed Kern’s inquiry with questions about procedures the police must follow regarding immigrants taken into custody by town police.

“In years past, we would be able to hold people with ICE holds, correct?” Merrifield asked. “Detention holds, where you would be able to notify the federal authorities if you had someone in custody, is that correct?” Merrifield asked. 

Frost replied that information about a person who is arrested  is sent automatically to NCIC when the person is finger-printed.

“We’ve never, in my time, we’ve never held anybody for ICE overnight or even delayed them getting released,” he said. “You need a judicial warrant,” Frost said. If there’s a judicial warrant, then police will hold them and notify the Department of Homeland Security to respond and take custody of them, he said. That policy has not changed in years, he said. 

“Right, that’s what I was getting at,” Merrifield said.  “And the same thing with regard to the Suffolk County jail. They used to be able to notify ICE when they were going to be releasing someone, right? Is that correct?” she asked.

“They did, and they got sued and lost,” Frost replied. A federal jury in November ordered Suffolk County to pay A federal jury has ordered Suffolk County to pay $112 million in damages to hundreds of immigrants who were unlawfully detained in county jails at the request of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between July 2014 and November 2018. Suffolk County has filed a notice of appeal of the decision in the federal trial court and the appeal is now pending in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The county’s appellate brief is due to be filed with the court by Nov. 6.

Merrifield said holding or transferring people at a facility could avoid ICE apprehensions in streets and other public places.  “I just want the public to be aware of that concept,” she said.

New York law now specifically prohibits state and local agencies from entering agreements that deputize their personnel to carry out federal civil immigration enforcement. State attorney general guidance also distinguishes an ICE administrative detainer from a judicial warrant: local agencies ordinarily cannot extend a person’s detention on the strength of a civil immigration detainer alone. 

Merrifield recommended that people concerned about the issue contact the governor’s office and ask for changes to the law preventing local law enforcement, courts and jails from honoring ICE detainers.

Council Member Joann Waski expressed hope that New York would have a new governor on Jan. 1 and the current law will be changed. Waski, a Republican, did not name any candidate for governor, but the Republican Party candidate for governor is a strong supporter of allowing local law enforcement cooperating with ICE. 

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is challenging incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, previously signed an agreement with the federal government to have local police work as  immigration enforcement agents. He deputized some county cops as ICE agents. He also signed an agreement with the federal government to allow Nassau County jail space rental for housing ICE detainees.   

Blakeman ended both contracts this year after the state passed a new law banning such contracts between local municipalities and the federal government.

Supervisor Jerry Halpin and Council Member Ken Rothwell did not join this discussion during the work session.

Halpin said in a phone interview today that he doesn’t think the current system of cashless bail is working. “I think that too many repetitive people are back on the street too quickly.”

As for the issue of immigration enforcement, Halpin said, “What the governor is trying to do and continues to do is solid. And I think … coupling that with what our police are doing is fine, Halpin said.. “I’m willing to live with that system for now.”

Rothwell said the law requires a judicial warrant to hold someone for ICE, he said. As an accredited agency, the Riverhead Police Department must follow the laws of New York State, he said. “And we will do that.”

The 2019 laws that established cashless bail made a host of changes that not only had significant impacts on a judge’s discretion, but also had significant fiscal consequences, Rothwell said. They increased the amount of paperwork arresting officers must complete — and so increase the amount of time the officers are off the street.

The laws also have burdened local courts with additional paperwork, he said, and that, too, comes at a cost. When people don’t appear for the appointed court date, the law requires the court to send them multiple notices for later court dates. And if they never show up, police must be dispatched to find them and bring them back to court, which is more time off the street. “These things have public safety impacts, Rothwell said.