NEW YORK — One of the issues that has dogged — and vexed — New York Mayor Eric Adams most since coming to City Hall is bringing crime under control.
And while reforming the state’s bail laws has become a major focus, criminal justice experts say a far more complex problem needs to be solved for crime rates to come back down: A seismic cultural shift underway within police departments, not only in New York, but throughout the U.S.
That sea change is marked, to varying degrees, by a more tentative, less aggressive approach from officers trying to come to terms with measures intended to curb overly aggressive tactics, massive protests aimed against police brutality and the preponderance of cellphone cameras that make filming police on the street enormously easy, experts and officers say.
