Mayor Eric Adams is expected to lobby for tougher bail laws during his much-talked-about first visit to the state Capitol on Monday.
Hizzoner is meeting with state legislators, including Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, in Albany at 10 a.m. as violent crimes continue to rise in New York City, which has been blamed in part on lax bail reform.
The first month of 2022 recorded a 38.5 percent increase in nearly all major crime categories — rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and car thefts — in a return to pre-pandemic levels, according to data released earlier this month.
The mayor’s hyped visit also comes after a woman was fatally stabbed inside her Chinatown apartment early Sunday by an alleged career criminal with three open cases against him, according to NYPD sources.
Adams, who has vowed to crack down on crime, has been pushing lawmakers to allow judges to consider the “dangerousness” of defendants before deciding whether to release them from custody.
The mayor is also scheduled to meet with the Assembly Democratic Conference and the Senate Democratic Conference later in the afternoon.
He tweeted a video of himself en route to Albany via train late Sunday, saying: “On my way to Albany to #GetStuffDone for New York City!”
Adams’ highly touted visit comes less than a week after he promoted his budget priorities to Albany’s leaders on what’s known as “Tin Cup Day.”
During that virtual appearance, he pushed lawmakers to make “targeted amendments” to the state’s 2019 bail reform law and the Raise the Age legislation that increased the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 18.