The history of cash bail shows why New Yorkers have reason to be cautious about giving such latitude to judges. For decades in New York, judges routinely used their discretion to set bail that poor people could not pay. As NY1’s Errol Louis noted recently, that’s how the state ended up with so many people charged with low-level offenses behind bars before trial in the first place. In 2017, the city’s Independent Budget Office estimated that 72 percent of those incarcerated in the city pretrial were behind bars solely because they could not afford to post bail at their arraignments.

What’s really needed is a focused campaign by prosecutors, the police and others worried about crime to strengthen and increase funding for the state’s mental health system. City officials estimate that roughly 40 percent of the individuals jailed at Rikers Island struggle with mental illness, so it’s likely that many of the people accused of committing low-level offenses in New York need help, not punishment.

Rolling back the reforms would be a mistake. It’s possible that the law would benefit from small changes, but those ought to stem from substantial data analysis, not from the bullying of elected officials by the state’s law enforcement lobby.

Commissioner Shea and others who oppose many of the reforms argue that an uptick in crime in recent weeks is proof that the changes are a danger to the public. But policing experts, including New York Police Department analysts, have contended for years that crime trends should be studied over long periods of time. Dips and spikes in crime can be attributed to many causes, including the weather. This is especially true when the actual number of crimes is small, as is the case in New York City today.

These reforms were enacted by a Legislature and governor elected by New York voters, who in 2018 delivered Democrats a clear majority in the State Senate for the first time in years.

If prosecutors, the police or others believe that the law is causing public harm, it is their job to make a reasoned case. Instead, too many have resorted, once again, to whipping up fear over crime to defend policies that lead to over-policing and incarceration.

Regularly missing from their lectures about public safety is any significant recognition of the ways these policies have harmed the safety and dignity of black and Hispanic people in New York.