State leaders are doubling down on their tough on crime stance this week attorney general Matt Plotkin touted double-digit drops in both gun violence and car thefts issues Governor Murphy recently claimed were an epidemic in New Jersey vowing to fight them through Statewide intelligence sharing new task forces and expanded laws but critics have argued the efforts weren't investing in the root cause of Public Safety problems the people now the Murphy Administration is sharing new numbers on crime reduction calling the policies a success amid a spat of police involved shootings that are roiling the state for more I'm joined Now by New Jersey's top law enforcement officer attorney general Matt Plotkin attorney general Plotkin it's great to have you on the show I want to ask you about this op-ed you recently wrote looking at crime statistics the fact that they are down Statewide you specifically cited that shootings are down about 25 percent a drop in in gun victims how do you tie those statistics to the state's current gun laws well thank you for having me Brianna and uh this is such an important topic because I think it's really important that when we're talking about law enforcement's work or criminal justice policy that we're doing it based on facts uh look any shooting any incident of crime anytime someone's afraid in their house is a tragedy and that as the chief law enforcement officer gives me concern but we have seen great progress in the state over the past year as you said last year's shootings went down 25 percent in the state and that happened everywhere from Jersey City to Camden uh crime drop or shootings dropped by over uh double digits and each each one of those communities and that's hundreds of people literally that are were not shot last year that were shot by the Numbers the year before and that's people who are at dinner tables every night spending holidays and birthdays and we should celebrate that work and we should also as we're thinking about how we respond to any allegations of a rising crime we should be basing that on data and not on emotion you've written that it's a direct result of uh I'm quoting you strong Common Sense gun laws but I'm curious how you can pinpoint it to the policies we saw a spike Nationwide during the pandemic we've since seen that Nationwide that same Trend drop how do we pinpoint it to specific policies as opposed to trends that are really playing out everywhere well we know our strong gun laws work uh we know that in New Jersey you are much safer than you are in virtually any other state you're six times more likely to be shot in Mississippi than you are in New Jersey and that's because of and not in spite of our strong gun laws it's also because of how we approach our enforcement efforts here in this state we take an intelligence-based approach to gun crimes and now we also take it to auto theft meaning we track violent individuals we know who they are we follow the gun and we go after those who are truly involved in violence and not the broader communities which we've seen in the past which has resulted in disparate impact on communities of color and that effort particularly the law enforcement effort and the work that's being done every single day by state federal and local Partners throughout the state is a key contributor using those strong gun laws to go after people who we know are committing crimes in our communities how does the concealed carry laws play into this because I I believe anyway the you wrote that that they are also contributing to this decline but as we both know they're also tied up in court so how are these laws with regard to concealed carry helping when in fact the the bands that you all put in place in those specific places can't be carried out right now well I was speaking historically historically New Jersey's strong concealed carry laws have contributed to our low rates of gun violence we know more concealed carry is going to result in more gun violence that's just a fact Rand just completed a study a non-partisan think tank just completed a 20-year study of concealed carry laws across the country and unsurprisingly found that states that have lacks concealed carry laws have more gun crimes have more gun violence and so the truth is if you look at what folks on the other side of this argument are saying they're the ones who are looking to undermine Public Safety what they're asking for to me is crazy they want guns in your kids schools they want guns in our hospitals they want guns on playgrounds they want to be able to bring guns into your houses without even so much as even having to ask you for permission first those are the types of policies that we know encourage gun violence the work that we're doing both in terms of strong gun laws our community and hospital-based violence intervention work and our intelligence-based approach to gun prosecutions are driving down those numbers is there concern then on your part or your office that this law is tied up in court and can't be carried out in the way that you intend for it to absolutely that's a concern and that was our concern from the moment the Bruin decision came down the Bruin decision in June effectively disregarded the opinion of law enforcement officers not just in New Jersey but across the country who said that people who do not have a specific threat do not need to carry a concealed firearm but Bruin is the law of the land and we're defending those laws in court and I believe they are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment and with that decision and we'll see how that plays out but should they not be upheld we know that there will be an adverse impact on our Public Safety we know that again if there's more concealed carry if there's concealed carry in bars and restaurants and entertainment centers and in your house and in your schools and in your hospitals those guns get used maybe not all the time but at a rate that's higher than if people weren't carrying altogether and we see that again in states that have had laws like we are now being threatened to have here in New Jersey across the country again you're more likely to be shot in those States than you are in New Jersey and that's because of of the laws they have that's why we are fighting so vigorously to defend these laws uh you mentioned attorney general the vehicle thefts what is the state done that's worked again that was another 20 plus percent drop what's been done that you can specifically say worked to bring about that decrease yeah when when I came into office a little over a year ago I inherited a 22 uh increase in Auto thefts and that concerned me it concerned me for a number of reasons in particular if people don't feel safe in their homes and their communities then that as my as chief law enforcement officer that's my top priority I need to make sure that you do feel safe and so we invested heavily uh we increased uh Statewide auto theft task force adding new Personnel from the state police in the division of Criminal Justice as well as from communities across the state and what that task force does is again just like gun violence we take a robust intelligence-based approach Statewide share information we find individuals who we know are leading organized car theft rings and we and we use our law enforcement efforts to hold them accountable some of these individuals may be stealing four six cars a night and so you think about that if you take one of those folks off the street and hold them accountable that's 30 to 40 cars a week that you're preventing from being stolen and that has been a key contributor to driving those numbers down 26 reduction in Auto thefts this year to date let me shift to this new directive your office put out which is regarding sexual assault and medical exams uh commonly referred to as rape kits the directive you put out requires now those kits to be retained for 20 years as opposed to the five years that was previously required why are you shifting that increasing the number of years and you know we've heard criticism over time from folks who say their exams haven't been tested because it's under the jurisdiction of a local law enforcement department to determine whether or not it should be will that practice end so we took a number of important steps yesterday with that directive first as you mentioned we extended the time that so-called hold kits and these are kits and just to be clear these are kits that survivors of sexual violence have said they're not yet ready for them to be tested and that should be their decision we try to take a survivor-centric and trauma-informed approach here in New Jersey and that's their decision and so we want to make sure they have the fullest amount of time possible to make that decision which is often a traumatic one it's also consistent with Federal best practices and remember we have no statute of limitations for sexual assault in New Jersey the legislature has made that determination I think appropriately and so victims should have ample time to make that decision come forward we've also uh changed as you suggested the criteria upon which that investigators can choose not to have a kit tested what we found through a survey was that in some limited circumstances investigators were making decisions not to test kits based on outdated and frankly incorrect methodologies and this and and reasons reasons like they didn't think uh they could identify a suspect or they thought it was a consensual act or that involved a a marital or intimate partner we know that all of those are not legitimate reasons to test a kit and so what we said is going forward that will no longer be a basis for doing so and if a kit in a rare circumstance where a victim says they want it tested and it's not tested that will have to go all the way up to the highest levels of either my department or the prosecutor's office and a reason will have to be documented and we're going to monitor this very closely requiring bi-annual twice a year reporting to our office to see how it's working very quickly Before I Let You Go our team led by Colleen O'Day did an analysis given the number of police involved shootings lately of course we won't ask you about the most recent in which your office is investigating in Patterson and Deptford townships but Colleen specifically and our team found it difficult to navigate the use of force database which was put forward to make that information accessible and transparent for the public specifically find that deaths were not listed as a part of the use of force database is that something that your office sees is time to revamp again this was put in place in 2019 it's been a handful of years are you considering that I think our use of force database was as you suggested uh frankly a national Pioneer and when President Biden signed his executive order last June on the anniversary of George Floyd's murder imposing a similar use of force database on federal officers he modeled it in many ways on what we have here we strive to be as transparent as we can with respect to uses of force are there ways we can get better of course we will all work to do so and I thank the governor and the legislature for investing in our office of Justice data which is the first of its kind office dedicated to data and transparency for the public and we will continue to analyze use of force reports sometimes the information that we've seen which is not written by us it comes from local law enforcement and reports and sometimes that needs to be refined and that's something we've changed through directives and we'll continue to evaluate if there's ways to improve it but transparency is the goal and we we know that's important for trust with law enforcement attorney general Matt Platt and thanks for your time tonight thanks Brianna I appreciate you having me