New York, NY – Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Member Rory Lancman, Chair of the Committee on the Justice System, and Council Member Donavan Richards, Chair of the Committee on Public Safety, are calling on the city’s top law enforcement officials to take all necessary measures to keep as many New Yorkers as possible out of the criminal justice system in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. 

In the letter sent today, Johnson, Lancman and Richards called on the NYPD to stop making low level arrests for cases like low-level minor drug possession, and failure to appear in court. Unnecessary arrests are putting the public health is at risk, they argue in the letter. 

The letter is addressed to Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Elizabeth Glazer, and the city’s District Attorneys. 

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