It's been almost two years since bail reform laws went into effect in New York state. Now local officials and state politicians are calling for those laws to change.

On Friday, Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard and Sheriff-elect John Garcia were joined by U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, state Sen. Pat Gallivan and State Republican Party Committee Chariman Nick Langworthy. They're all calling for bail reform to be repealed. They say New York is failing when it comes to criminal justice.

"I think I can categorize what we see in this bail reform, this catch-and-release bail reform program is nothing but a con by politicians from Albany and downstate that are trying to convince the good intelligent people of the state that crime is down in our state because prison populations are down,” Howard said. “When in fact it's just the opposite. Crime continues to increase because of the releases that are being made."

"We need a common sense to bail reform which is let's put it back in the hands of the judges,” Garcia added. “They have the information. Bail reform shouldn't, you know, bail shouldn't be a punishment to those that are indigent. However, bail reform forgot to take into consideration the safety of the victims, the witnesses in the community, and because of that we had a tremendous surge in violence and it's effected everyone." 

Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke on the bail reform controversy this week, saying the state is looking at all the options surrounding this policy.