In Essex County, a debate over bail reform is leading to intense talks about how to combat crime, with an increasing number of vocal critics linking the social justice movement to an uptick in illegal activity like car thefts.

That's despite public safety data showing crime rates are down since the reform took effect.

A senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.

In one town, the issue led local leaders to bring back a decades old neighborhood watch program.

Bail reform needs to be reformed in New Jersey.

There are increasing calls in New Jersey for reform on how and when offenders are released on bail.

Bail reform was enacted during the Christie administration and to stop the detention of people awaiting trial simply because they didn't have the money for bail.

I absolutely agree that bail reform was needed.

No one should sit in jail just because they're indigent and they're likely to come back and face a trial.

But the cases that we're trying to look to change are the ones that involve threats to the public who just don't meet certain standards of violent crimes.

But they're doing a ton of property crimes and ultimately get out again.

Judges use data through the public safety assessment tool to determine if a person poses a threat if released.

Fairfield Police Chief Anthony Manna wants that to include property crime because car thefts have been on the rise despite laws passed last year.

Strengthening penalties on car thieves.

East Orange Mayor Ted Green says urban mayors are most concerned about guns.

We saw influx of the guns in our communities and we saw that our police officers had to tackle this very slow where a person would get arrest on a monday and with all the hard work done on a Friday, that person is back out on the street, which causes us to believe that that law has to be a little stronger.

Bail reform has been championed by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, who recently convened a committee of 25 bipartisan people to assess its success.

The ACLU of New Jersey's Alex Shalom is one of them, and he disagrees with the mayors.

They're wrong and the data simply don't support it.

We rank 50th in violent crime.

We are the safest state in America for violent crime.

Violent crime and crime in general have dropped in New Jersey since bail reform has been in place.

The Administrative Office of the Courts shares data about those released on bail.

The latest report shows a little more than 1100 people released after being issued a warrant in the first six months of 2021.

990 of them were not re-arrested during that time period, meaning about 10% were bail reform.

With all due respect to whoever has been saying that in New Jersey is viewed as the national model, the period.

Are there laws that we could have on the books that would address home invasions, car thefts, which we've already worked with the legislature on?

Open minded, clearly.

But bail reform has been a huge success in New Jersey.

That doesn't mean that neighborhoods aren't allowed to feel unsafe or worry about auto theft.

All of those things are fair and legitimate.

But to associate it with bail reform is not borne out by the data.

It's gotten so frustrating for people here in Nutley that the town has launched a neighborhood watch program where residents will be out patrolling the streets looking for suspicious activity.

We're partnering with our neighbors, our residents here, because the more eyes that we have on the street, when you see something, say something.

Streets will have captains, but not.

Public Safety director Alphonse Petracco says residents have been warned not to engage with anyone they think looks suspicious.

A lot of my friends from Nutley are cowboys and they're like, somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot, you know, unfortunately, you'll be shooting a kid because most of them are 15, 16 years old.

And I know nobody wants to live with that the rest of their lives and they're wind up being the ones in jail.

So we keep preaching that message.

You're not a cop and you're not armed usually.

Please just call the police.

The concern with neighborhood watches is that you have untrained folks who can't identify.

The difference between someone borrowing a friend's car and someone stealing a car and wind up trying to play police officer when we have trained people who should be doing that.

Shalom doesn't want to see New Jersey repeat situations like the shootings of Trayvon Martin or Ahmaud Arbery an innocent black boy and young black man who were murdered by white men patrolling their neighborhoods.

In Nutley.

I'm Joanna Gagis,, NJ Spotlight News.