Albany County District Attorney David Soares is one of the most articulate and outspoken opponents of the 2019 bail “reforms” that propelled crime in New York State to heights not seen in a decade.
And for his courageous and principled stance, this Democrat is being challenged in a primary June 25.
Soares has fought with his own party leaders, including Gov. Hochul and the mayor of Albany, over many of the Legislature’s criminal justice actions.
He has gone public with arguments that most DAs make only in private.
When Soares talks about bail reform, he addresses himself not just to the people of Albany County, but to the people of New York state.
And that’s why this race is so important.
For Soares the issue is not political, but personal: As a black prosecutor born in West Africa, he has seen what Albany’s criminal justice reforms have done to his community.
Minorities are overwhelmingly the victims of the increased crime brought about by these changes.
Soares first won election in 2004 as a progressive who opposed the state’s tough Rockefeller drug laws.
During his time in office he has developed many alternative sentencing programs and diverted defendants into treatment, all while focusing on the main job of a prosecutor: keeping the public safe.
And he did just that.
Soares was elected DA in 2004. From 2004 to 2019, with Soares as DA, index crime (murder, rape, robbery, larceny, aggravated assault, burglary and car theft) went down in Albany County by 37%.
But now the crime reductions of his 20 years as DA are being undone by politicians.
The televised debate between Soares and his challenger, Defense Attorney Lee Kindlon, told voters all we need to know.
The moderator asked the candidates if they thought the 2019 bail reform laws need to be amended to allow judges to consider dangerousness when setting bail.
Soares unequivocally supported a change to allow judges to consider dangerousness when setting bail.
“The idea that we have a criminal justice system where judges you elect to keep us safe cannot consider dangerousness is laughable,” he said.
Kindlon, a career defense attorney who continues to take on criminal clients as he campaigns for DA, incredibly replied, “Bail reform works . . . bail reform makes us safer.”
It’s hard to figure out what Kindlon based his opinion on — he didn’t quote any data. But here are the facts.
The “successful” 2019 bail reforms that Kindlon supports released hundreds of career criminals from local jails in Albany County alone, and thousands more across the state.
In 2018, local Albany jails housed 587 people. By 2020, after bail reform, just 288 remained in Albany County jails, a 51% decrease. Today, the jail population is still 23% below what it was prior to bail reform.
And then what happened? From 2019 to 2023, serious felony crimes in Albany County rose almost 22%, as these career criminals went back to doing what they did best — preying on innocent people.
Similar crime increases were seen all over the state. But Kindlon says these reforms made us safer.
Murders in Albany County doubled from eight in 2019 to an average of 17 a year between 2020 and 2023.
From 2019 to 2023, aggravated assault rose 44%, car theft rose 140%, robbery rose 30%, all violent crime rose 35% and property crime rose 20%.
Just who is safer, Mr. Kindlon?
To be fair, it wasn’t only bail reform that caused these unnecessary crime surges.
Raise the Age, which requires 16- and 17-year-olds to be prosecuted in Family Court, and discovery reform, which is causing thousands of cases to be dismissed because of unworkable time deadlines for prosecutors, have done much damage to the criminal justice system statewide.
Kindlon, as a defense attorney, supports those changes. Soares, a veteran DA, opposes them.
David Soares is one of those rare birds: a man willing to challenge the orthodoxy of his party for the public good.
It would be a tragic loss not just to Albany, but to New York state as a whole, if we were to lose his voice.
Jim Quinn was executive district attorney in the Queens District Attorney’s Office, where he served for 42 years. Bill Bratton is a former NYPD Police Commissioner and former LAPD Police Chief.