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While the White House can’t directly control local jurisdictions that refuse to issue cash bail for accused criminals, particularly repeat offenders, experts say the president does have some ways to influence cities where crime has gotten out of control.
President Donald Trump recently announced a new executive order as part of his plan to undo the spread of cashless bail. He directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to, within 30 days, compile a list of all jurisdictions that have implemented the policy. And he instructed other federal agencies to identify what grants and contracts can be suspended as a result.
“As President, I will require commonsense policies that protect Americans’ safety and well-being by incarcerating individuals who are known threats,” Trump wrote in the order. “It is therefore the policy of my Administration that Federal policies and resources should not be used to support jurisdictions with cashless bail policies, to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
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In Washington, D.C., where the president has more direct control, he ordered the Justice Department to file federal charges and seek pretrial detention whenever possible.
“While the president may not have direct ability to control the law enforcement of these individual cities and states, what he does have is the power of the purse strings,” said Randolph Rice, a Baltimore-area attorney and legal analyst. “He can use money and withhold that money to force these jurisdictions and these states to accept the help of the federal government.”
His intervention in Washington is already paying dividends, he said, with carjackings down more than 80% in a 20-day span, as revealed by Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“Which is amazing to me why you have a mayor or a governor of another state, where crime is a problem, and they’re unwilling to accept that help,'” said Rice, whose previous clients include the family of Rachel Morin, who was killed by a fugitive illegal immigrant two years ago this month.
“It’s like your house is burning down,” Rice continued. “The fire department is calling and saying, ‘Hey, we can send another fire truck to put out the fire.’ And you just say, ‘No. I think we’re good. We won’t take the help.'”
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Under cashless bail schemes, an arrested suspect walks free before their trial without having to post any overhead fees, known as bail or bond, that are meant to ensure they keep coming back to court.
“So essentially the person goes to court within the first 24 hours, and the judge lets them go and says, you need to come back to court on this date,” Rice said. “And if you don’t, there really are no consequences.”
Such policies have spread through liberal jurisdictions in recent years despite frequent criticism that they are too lenient on repeat offenders, some of whom have gone on to commit more serious crimes.
In Washington in March 2022, a then-31-year-old man named Johnwann Elliott gunned down 37-year-old Nikia Young in broad daylight at a bus stop, according to the Justice Department. At the time of the murder, despite a prior robbery conviction for which he served time in prison, he was freed from custody while awaiting trial on an unrelated car theft charge.
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A California study in 2023 found that violent crime tripled in the state under its “Zero Bail” policy.
“Every single individual and every case should be evaluated by a judge, an independent magistrate, who can look at that person’s criminal history, look at the facts of the current case and make an informed decision about what their risk level is and what’s it going to take to make sure that they don’t go out and harm somebody again,” Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig told Fox News Digital at the time. “That needs to happen in every case.”
Another version of cashless bail, according to Rice, is called unsecured bond. In those situations, bond is set with a dollar value, but the defendant doesn’t have to post it unless they miss a court date.
“Well, the funny part about that is, is if somebody doesn’t show up to court, they’re probably not going to pay a bond either,” Rice told Fox News Digital. “So it really is a ludicrous idea to have these unsecure bonds, but cashless bond is becoming more popular in a lot of these blue states, a lot of the more liberal states. And I think a lot of these states are starting to see a backfire on them.”
In particular, he said, low-level criminals who are released go back to committing crimes like shoplifting and burglary almost immediately, before their pending cases go to court, lowering the quality of life and keeping crime levels high even in areas where murders are down.
In Baltimore, for example, medical advances have made it more likely for victims to survive shootings.
“What we see is that people that got shot who maybe 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago would have died, they go to Shock Trauma, and they save them,” he said, referring to the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center. “So while the murder number may drop, the shooting number may be consistent or be going up, which is still a sign of crime in a city.”
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