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

The county believes the new booking location will get officers back on the streets sooner. The plan is to establish a centralized section of the court, which will provide morning and evening hearings.

Bello says this will not only keep officers from waiting for court to open, but will also speed up the process, making it fairer.

Here’s how it works now: When someone is arrested, they are taken to the police station to be booked and then wait for a judge to hand down charges.

What this proposal does is to centralize the process. If approved, it would all be done in downtown Rochester at the Monroe County Jail. There will be two sessions each day – one in the morning and one in the evening – when the courts are usually closed.

“So you have all these police departments in all these town and village courts, including town courts that operate independently of each other — which is really unnecessary because we have a centralized booking facility — Monroe — we have our deputy sheriffs. county jail,” Bello said.

He added: “Police agencies, when they make that arrest and wait for that arraignment – now take the officers off the street and to me that’s not working. Why have all these different police agencies and tie up all those law enforcement officers when we have the infrastructure?”

The public safety spending plan also includes $280,000 in increased funding for four new probation officers. Once hired, they will help with the county’s program aimed at preventing youth previously involved in crime from recidivism.

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