New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Tuesday said bail reform in the state was to blame for an increase in some serious crimes, while criminal justice reform advocates pointed out that the month of data he cited was too short a time frame to draw reliable conclusions.

Shea said he stands by an op-ed he wrote last week in The New York Times claiming the laws “harm public safety.”

“I think that, you know, with the passing of the new law, we saw a pretty, pretty, pretty dramatic increase in the people that were let out of Rikers in accordance with the law, and that’s something that we will deal with,” he said.

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The law in question eliminates cash bail for most misdemeanors and some nonviolent felony crimes.

Mayor Bill de Blasio Bill de BlasioDe Blasio to furlough himself, 494 other staff members amid financial crunch: report The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Trump's West Coast campaign swing NY cancels traditional Macy's Thanksgiving parade, will hold virtual event MORE (D) has also claimed the city saw effects “emanating from this law for months.” While the law officially took effect Jan. 1, courts have been following its guidelines since November 2019 to avoid a sudden, concentrated release of arrestees.

Police data indicate that crime in January 2020 increased 16.9 percent compared to January 2019, driven by spikes in robberies, shootings and car thefts, but during the same period, the number of rapes and murders fell.

Nicole Triplett, policy counsel of the New York Civil Liberties Union, accused de Blasio and Shea of “manipulating statistics to fit their misguided narrative that giving low-income New Yorkers the same privileges as wealthier people is somehow linked to crime,” the Times reported.

“For the past two decades, New York City has reduced both its jail population and the use of cash bail, resulting in some of the lowest crime rates we have ever seen,” she said. “We cannot let the distortions, falsehoods and purposeful fear-mongering that has spread over the past few weeks discredit these long-overdue changes.”

Police records indicated 7,215 serious crimes in January compared to 8,437 in January 2019.

New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D), whose district includes parts of the Bronx, cast doubt on how much useful data could be gleaned in a month, saying, “You’ve probably had thousands of people who have probably been arrested, but the only stories that seem to be written are ones that some people blame the bail law.”