well when it passed in 2014 bail reform was among New Jersey's bipartisan crowning achievements now the policy has become a political football of sorts with elected leaders from both parties pointing to it as either the cause or solution to rise in crime in the state former Governor Chris Christie and a panel of experts Tuesday night defended his administration's overhaul of the bail system and attempts to roll it back senior political correspondent David Cruz reports I'm proud that we work together to do it the right way and I think that's what you're going to hear about tonight is that New Jersey has done this the right way and is serving as a model for those who want to do this the right way not the political way former Governor Chris Christie will remind you that he's the Republican governor who ushered bail reform through a democratic legislature almost a decade ago at a panel discussion on bail reform at the Christie Institute for public policy at Seton Hall he lined up some of the people who were closest to him back then for a discussion of how the state came to the reforms and the challenges they faced today I looked back and the one statistic that struck me in 2012 was 500 people were in jail in 2012 on 15 on 2500 or less of bail 2500 their reform comes and by 2021 the number is four four people the panel which included former Christie Administration officials like Jeff kieza and Chris Perino as well as public defender Joseph krocora and others addressed concerns over an uptick in crime particularly car thefts coinciding with pandemic restrictions that has many elected officials from both parties starting to call for reform to the reforms what immediately happens is well what happened what changed other than the pandemic what changed since then what's bail before and so immediately it's well bail reform must be the problem not the problem I hope that the power Brokers of the world legislators understand that there really is no correlation between the uptick in crime and the Criminal Justice Reform Act the rate of recidivism has not gone up the rate of people not showing him court has not gone up and it would really be a shame if we were to disrupt what undoubtedly is the best and fairest pre-trial release system in the Country Republican state Senator Mike Testa is one who's pushed for bills to toughen pre-trial detention and impose mandatory sentencing for car thefts he's pointed to bail reform as part of the reason for an uptick in crime even as more recent statistics show a reversal of those numbers I was happy to hear that they admitted that the system is not perfect but it's far better than it used to be and I still think that there are some Kinks that can be worked out in the system and you know I'm willing to work in a bipartisan Manner and with some guidance from Governor Christie I understand we're in an election year here in the state and the whole legislature or something people are going to try to play politics my only point is like you know from sugar changes that can be made small ones to make it better but the results speak for themselves that's just not do something for short-term political gain that will wind up really injuring people the state in a big way you pull on one thread it all starts to move and I would say you know there are ways to make tweaks if tweaks need to be made the most recent data on car thefts actually suggests that the numbers are going down again so before everybody gets so excited we gotta you know upend this incredible National model of reform because car thefts are up let's take a look at the numbers but election season is election season and in New Jersey the fog of poll data and politics can color the judgment and make even seemingly positive reforms right for deconstruction for better or For Worse I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news