NYC releases many arrested by NYPD anti-gun unit

Many arrested by the New York City Police Department’s new anti-gun unit have been released because of progressive bail reforms and lenient judges.

The NYPD said its new Neighborhood Safety Teams made 25 arrests in the three weeks following their launch in March. The New York Post could only obtain records for 12 of those cases and found that only one man remains behind bars.

Four of the defendants were released without bail and seven were free after posting bail that was set in their respective cases.

One defendant was Tyquise Bell, 23, who was allegedly arrested on Mar. 30 after NST cops spotted a 9mm Taurus pistol inside his pants.

During his arraignment, the Bronx District Attorney’s office and Judge Srividya Pappachan, an appointy of former mayor Bill de Blasio, agreed to let him go on supervised release because the charges were not bail eligible.

The NSTs are the newest iteration of the NYPD’s controversial anti-crime unit that was shut down in 2020. It was revived by mayor Eric Adams in an attempt to curb rising gun violence.

Shootings in New York City are up 10% compared to the same period in 2021, at a rate of more than three shootings per day.

The NYPD and City Hall have given different arrest data for the three-week period. The latter claims that the NSTs made 135 arrests, 67% of which had a prior arrest record.

However, the New York Post was only able to find one defendant held without bail in its review – Dwayne Davis, a 44-year-old man accused of shooting someone multiple times in the Bronx.

Law enforcement have placed the blame for a recent surge on progressive state bail reforms enacted in 2020 that eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felonies. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced changes to the laws earlier this month.