CRIME

NYC police boss pitches amnesty to clear backlog of 1.2M arrest warrants for low-level crimes

Associated Press
Published | Updated

In this May 14, 2015 photo, Sheila Beasley, a 50-year-old Bronx woman with no criminal history, discusses her case against the New York city police department at her attorney's office in the Brooklyn borough of New York. In December, 2008, Beasley briefly dropped a leash with her pet Rottweiler at the other end, and received a summons from a plain clothes police officer. Two years later she was tracked down and arrested on an open warrant for not answering her summons, and placed into custody for four days. William Bratton, New York City’s police commissioner, tells The Associated Press he’s open to discussing some kind of program that notifies people and offers to make their arrest warrants go away if they come forward. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) (The Associated Press)

In this May 14, 2015 photo, Sheila Beasley, a 50-year-old Bronx woman with no criminal history, discusses her case against the New York city police department at her attorney's office in the Brooklyn borough of New York. In December, 2008, Beasley briefly dropped a leash with her pet Rottweiler at the other end, and received a summons from a plain clothes police officer. Two years later she was tracked down and arrested on an open warrant for not answering her summons, and placed into custody for four days. William Bratton, New York City’s police commissioner, tells The Associated Press he’s open to discussing some kind of program that notifies people and offers to make their arrest warrants go away if they come forward. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) (The Associated Press)

In this May 14, 2015 photo, Sheila Beasley, a 50-year-old Bronx woman with no criminal history, discusses her case against the New York city police department at her attorney's office in the Brooklyn borough of New York. In December, 2008, Beasley briefly dropped a leash with her pet Rottweiler at the other end, and received a summons from a plain clothes police officer. Two years later she was tracked down and arrested on an open warrant for not answering her summons, and placed into custody for four days. William Bratton, New York City’s police commissioner, tells The Associated Press he’s open to discussing some kind of program that notifies people and offers to make their arrest warrants go away if they come forward. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) (The Associated Press)

New York City's police commissioner is floating the idea of using an amnesty program to resolve the 1.2 million open arrest warrants for low-level offenses.

William Bratton tells The Associated Press he's open to discussing some kind of program that notifies people and offers to make their arrest warrants go away if they come forward.

City officials have already announced a series of reforms meant to improve the summons process for minor crimes such as disorderly conduct and drinking in public.

The mayor's criminal justice coordinator says she's investigating how to safely reduce the number of outstanding warrants.

Almost 40 percent of the hundreds of thousands of people ticketed last year for minor offenses failed to show up to court, triggering a judge to issue an arrest warrant.