Public Safety

While the General Assembly has made important strides toward gun safety, including imposing stricter safe storage rules and banning assault weapons and large-capacity feeding devices, there is still work to do. Banning the purchase of multiple firearms at once is an important next step, as is codifying into state statute the Sullivan doctrine, which stems from a 2010 Superior Court ruling clarifying that municipalities may impose stricter gun laws than the overall state statutes.

For far too long, policymakers have tried to solve all public safety issues with mass incarceration, even though evidence shows that increasing the prison population and imposing strict mandatory minimum sentences does not reduce the rate of violent crime—though it does lead to life-altering consequences for incarcerated people and their families, at immense taxpayer expense. (The state of Rhode Island spends an estimated $86,967 to $258,220, depending on the facility, per inmate per year. For comparison, the governor’s salary is $163,295.) These consequences disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color. We must instead address the root causes of criminal behavior by investing in programs that guarantee economic security and mental health support to all.

Although the General Assembly has made some progress toward a more humane, effective, and fiscally responsible public safety policy, it has not been strictly linear. In recent years, Rep. Ajello has joined her colleagues in voting to make stealing over $250 in goods from a farm a felony punishable by up to five years in prison (typically, such a sentence cannot be imposed unless the value of the stolen goods is over $5,000) and to deny a medical license to anyone ever convicted of a crime of “moral turpitude” (a category that is vaguely defined and has historically been used to criminalize LGBTQ+ people).

The highly-touted “reform” to the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights (LEOBOR) failed to address the fundamental problem with that law: it still allows the police to police themselves. The disciplinary panels that adjudicate police misconduct still consist of a majority of police officers. Don’t just take my word for it—according to a prominent defense attorney who represents officers accused of misconduct, the LEOBOR changes were “all about the optics.” No government agency should be its own watchdog, and the police are no exception.

In 2024, Rep. Ajello cosponsored a motorcycle deregulation bill that passed and was signed into law. Because of this bill, motorcyclists only need to take a 15-hour course at CCRI that does not include on-road training to become fully licensed. One of the most common complaints I’ve heard from neighbors is that the motorcycle noise is out of control. It’s a nuisance (I live on Olney Street; it keeps me up at night, too!), and there are documented public health consequences of noise.

Beyond the noise concerns, adding more improperly trained motorcyclists to our roads poses serious safety risks for other drivers and passengers, pedestrians—and the poorly trained cyclists themselves, since roughly 40% of motorcycle fatalities are caused by single-vehicle accidents. We need to reverse this dangerous deregulation before it becomes deadly.