MONROE COUNTY, NY — Monroe County Executive Adam Bello on Wednesday unveiled a $1.5 billion spending plan that includes proposed investments in public safety, including establishing a new central booking location in Monroe County.

The county believes the new booking location will get officers on the streets sooner. The plan is to establish a central trial court division that will provide morning and evening hearings.

Bello says this will not only ensure that officers do not have to wait for court to open, but will also speed up the process by making it fairer.

Here’s how it works now: When someone is arrested, they are taken to the police station to register and then wait for the judge to hold the hearing.

What this proposal does is centralize the process. If approved, everything will be held at the Monroe County Jail in downtown Rochester. There will be two sessions each day, one in the morning and the other at night, when the courts are usually closed.

“So we have entire police departments operating independently of each other in all these town and village courts, including the city courts – which is really unnecessary because we have central booking – Monroe – we have sheriff’s deputies in the county jail,” Bello said.

He added: “Police departments, when they make this arrest and they wait for this hearing, you’re now taking officers off the street, and in my opinion, that’s not working. “Why are there so many diverse police organizations and so many law enforcement agencies when we have the infrastructure?”

The public safety spending plan also includes increased funding of $280,000 for four new probation officers. Once hired, they will assist with the county’s program, which aims to prevent youth who have previously been involved in crime from re-offending.

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