Sponsored by:
Senator BRIAN P. STACK
District 33 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
Requires public safety risk assessment to include additional consideration for firearms as public safety risk.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the public safety risk assessment and amending P.L.2014, c.31.
Whereas, The New Jersey State Commission of Investigation (SCI) is an independent fact-finding agency empowered by N.J.S.A.52:9M-1 et seq. to investigate public safety matters, monitor and assess the threat posed by organized crime, and recommend new laws and other systemic remedies to protect the integrity of the governmental process on behalf of the citizens of New Jersey; and
Whereas, Recently, SCI investigated concerns regarding illegal firearms and issued a report in September 2024 titled Illegal Firearms Use & Trends in New Jersey; and
Whereas, The recent proliferation of privately manufactured ghost guns, which are easy-to-build homemade guns that do not require background checks and are virtually untraceable, and firearms corrupted with devices enabling them to function like weapons of war, has allowed criminals to outgun the police in many communities; and
Whereas, Under the report, SCI was also concerned with instances where a firearm is discharged in public, as it is an inherently violent offense any time a firearm is discharged in public, with there always being a risk that a stray bullet could injure an innocent bystander and an even higher likelihood with gun conversion devices that turn semi-automatic firearms into rapid-fire machine guns; and
Whereas, The reckless and public discharges of a firearm, including instances when public discharges are charged as criminal mischief or endangering another person, should be categorized as violent offenses, yet in those instances the conduct would not currently be categorized as a violent offense under the Public Safety Assessment (PSA); and
Whereas, The PSA is a pretrial risk assessment tool that uses nine risk factors from an individuals criminal history to produce two risk scores: one representing the likelihood of a new crime being committed, and another representing the likelihood of a failure to appear for future court hearings; and
Whereas, The PSA is used at two points in New Jerseys pretrial process: at the time of arrest, when a police officer must decide whether to seek a complaint-warrant or issue a complaint summons; and at the time of the first court appearance, when the court sets release conditions for a defendant who was booked into jail on a complaint warrant; and
Whereas, The nine PSA risk factors developed and assessed by the New Jersey Judiciary are: (1) age at current arrest; (2) current violent offense; (3) pending charge at the time of offense; (4) prior disorderly persons conviction; (5) prior indictable conviction; (6) prior violent conviction; (7) prior failure to appear pretrial in the past two years; (8) prior failure to appear older than two years; and (9) prior sentence of incarceration; and
Whereas, SCIs findings reflected within its September 2024 report reveal that New Jersey should adopt or amend existing laws to address the latest technological advances used by criminal elements to circumvent gun restrictions and corrupt firearms to make them even more dangerous; and
Whereas, Specifically, SCIs report includes a finding that the current PSA risk factor calculations fail to accurately reflect the dangerousness of firearms; and
Whereas, Since the PSA risk factors are produced and assessed by the Judicial branch, the Legislative and Executive branches are joining together to urge the Judicial branch to reassess the PSA risk factors, in accordance with this act, to more accurately reflect changes in technology impacting the dangerousness level of firearms; now, therefore,
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 6 of P.L.2014, c.31 (C.2A:162-20) is amended to read as follows:
6. In determining in a pretrial detention hearing whether no amount of monetary bail, non-monetary conditions or combination of monetary bail and conditions would reasonably assure the eligible defendant's appearance in court when required, the protection of the safety of any other person or the community, or that the eligible defendant will not obstruct or attempt to obstruct the criminal justice process, the court may take into account information concerning:
a. The nature and circumstances of the offense charged;
b. The weight of the evidence against the eligible defendant, except that the court may consider the admissibility of any evidence sought to be excluded;
c. The history and characteristics of the eligible defendant, including:
(1) the eligible defendant's character, physical and mental condition, family ties, employment, financial resources, length of residence in the community, community ties, past conduct, history relating to drug or alcohol abuse, criminal history, and record concerning appearances at court proceedings, except with respect to these factors, the court shall not consider manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing, or possessing or having under control with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, marijuana or hashish in violation of paragraph (12) of subsection b. of N.J.S.2C:35-5, or possession of marijuana or hashish in violation of paragraph (3) of subsection a. of N.J.S.2C:35-10; and
(2) whether, at the time of the current offense or arrest, the eligible defendant was on probation, parole, or on other release pending trial, sentencing, appeal, or completion of sentence for an offense under federal law, or the law of this or any other state;
d. The nature and seriousness of the danger to any other person or the community that would be posed by the eligible defendant's release, if applicable;
e. The nature and seriousness of the risk of obstructing or attempting to obstruct the criminal justice process that would be posed by the eligible defendant's release, if applicable; and
f. The release recommendation of the pretrial services program obtained using a risk assessment instrument under section 11 of P.L.2014, c.31 (C.2A:162-25). Pretrial services shall recommend no release when a defendant has been charged with any crime [for which the eligible defendant would be subject to a ma