Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Teenagers and young kids across Western New York are continuing to steal cars. It's become a nationwide epidemic that has only gotten worse following the viral TikTok trend, "The Kia Challenge," a video showing the defects in cars that allows kids to steal them using just a USB charger.
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Erie County District Attorney John Flynn and Cheektowaga Police Chief Brian Gould addressed the trend in car thefts and adolescents on Friday, following an arraignment of a 17-year-old Buffalo male who is facing nine felony charges including attempted murder in the second degree, for running over Cheektowaga Police Officer Troy Blackchief with a stolen Jeep.
"This investigation really showed us a lot, and we learned a lot about what's going on in our community. Not speaking specifically of any individuals, but what we know is young people in our community are creating havoc," said Chief Gould.
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"Research has shown us that 16- and 17-year-olds, that's a time when their perception of risk is the lowest and their preference to take risk is the highest. It's like the perfect apex of the worst two times in our life. We're seeing these young people doing it. Whether it's the young people who were killed on the expressway in a stolen Kia, or the people involved in this case, who were out repeatedly committing crimes, night-after-night, with no fear of consequences, no deterrence to that, no leadership, no supervision at home."
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn agrees and adds the state needs to take a serious look into some stricter punishment to prevent repeat offenses.
"The majority of these 'so-called' criminal justice reforms that have been enacted in New York State over the past four years, have done a lot of things. But from a 30,000-foot macro level, they've done one thing. What they've done is, eliminate accountability. When you eliminate accountability, that fosters chaos in society."
The district attorney deduces the culprit of the failing justice system is the raise the age law and bail reform.
"The raise the age law certainly has eliminated accountability ... in New York State. That needs to be looked at," says Flynn. "I have no problem with counseling and with services for our young people who get caught up in a criminal justice system. But we are in a system now, where the entire focus is on love. And it should be, at some times, also brought in [with] tough love. There's no tough love at all. It's all love and that's a problem."
Attorney Terry Connors breaks down the history of the raise the age law.
"Our [state] legislature has debated for years, what to do with respect to the age at which a juvenile can automatically be tried as an adult. And recently, New York raised the age from 16 to 18. New York was one of the last states in the country to make that shift. So the legislators really hailed it as a triumph, but there still are a lot of people who are critical of it, because violent felonies can be tried in adult criminal court even though the individual is only 16 or 17."
There have been changes made to recently bail reform in New York's state budget that gives judges more discretion.
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"When someone, a juvenile, or any other individual is charged, essentially, with a misdemeanor, which is the unauthorized use of a vehicle, it's very unlikely that bail will ever be issued in that, because it's not a major offense. It's handled often almost exclusively by an appearance ticket. And the judges have the discretion to do that. So that really wouldn't change significantly because of those offenses. But now, with the change in the law, the judge is entitled to more discretion, entitled to take into consideration additional criteria, so that there can be bail imposed in situations which prior to the change in law, it was not eligible," said Connors.
Chief Gould calls not upon just community to continue to keep your car doors locked and keys on your person, but on our lawmakers and judges.
"We need to do better, we need to do better as a community to engage our young people, to hold those who fail to make proper choices responsible and to add some deterrence to their decision making process.
If we don't, I fear that we're just going to continue to see more tragedies, do more press conferences, talk more about bad things that are happening. So we're happy to work together with with our partners in the community. You know, we understand young people make mistakes while they're growing up. But there's a difference between somebody doing it once and somebody who is repeatedly continually making poor choices, with no regard for the safety of the people of our communities."
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