By Police1 Staff
NEW YORK — New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton has called for changing the charge of resisting arrest from a misdemeanor to a felony-level crime.
Speaking Wednesday at a hearing, Bratton argued that the change would help deter suspects from fighting with officers, the New York Observer reported. Nearly 2,000 people are charged with the crime yearly in New York.
“We need to get around this idea that you can resist arrest. You can’t. You just can’t do it. It results in potential injuries to the officer, to the suspect. And we need to change that, and the way to change that is to start penalties for it,” Bratton said at the hearing.
The call for change was one of many Bratton urged in the name of officer safety. He also called for harsher penalties for fatal assaults on police officers and for attacking auxiliary police and school safety officers, as well as adding bulletproof glass in all squad cars.