VIDEO: Boy, 11, driving suspected stolen car hits woman; released due to state law
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An 11-year-old boy, caught on video driving in a suspected stolen car that struck a 34-year-old woman, has been released to his parents.
This decision follows a New York State law that raised the minimum age to prosecute a juvenile to 12-years- old and instead seek response services.
According to Rochester Police, the crash occurred around 8:20pm Wednesday night.
Surveillance camera footage shows the car entering from Jefferson Avenue, turning onto Flint Street and hitting the woman.
The boy then drove onto the grass and continued.
The woman is currently recovering at Strong Memorial Hospital.
“Due to New York state law, the 11-year-old is unable to be charged criminally so we referred him to the New York State Children Family Services,” said Captain Greg Bello from Rochester Police.
The raising the lower age juvenile delinquency jurisdiction, establishing differential response programs for children under the age of 12, is a law that was amended in 2022.
It changed the age for charging, arresting, or prosecuting children from 7 to 12 years old.
“Hopefully this is an isolated incident for this 11-year-old male and this doesn’t become a reoccurring theme, that they dive into a life of crime. Hopefully this is something that can be nipped early,” Bello said.
Children under 12 are now referred to social services for support.
State data from 2022 shows cases for 7 to 11-year-olds dropped from 304 in 2019 to 224 in 2021.
State Assemblywoman Jen Lunsford, who is one of the co-sponsors of the bill, along with Assembly member Demond Meeks, Senator Jeremy Cooney, and Senator Sandra Brouck.
“These are kids that are acting out because of some type of trauma,” said Lunsford. “And we don’t think that putting them in a detention center with older kids who are committing much more serious crimes is necessarily the best way to address the underlying cause.”
Lunsford suggests matching children with appropriate services through family court, such as the Monroe County Juvenile Enhanced Diversion Stabilization (JEDS) program.
This program provides in-community supervision for non-violent first-time offenders and assigning them a probation officer for two weeks and then seeking help through family services.
“The repeat rate of kids who go through the JEDS program is 3.4%, which is incredibly low and demonstrates that there is a way to get a handle on what’s happening with these kids,” Lunsford said.
Former Gates Police Chief, Jim VanBrederode supports programs over prison for kids and said the state needs to provide more program and funding.
He doesn’t want to see these young kids end up in jail. When he was Chief, he decided to arrest parents instead.
“Law enforcement is begging for more programs,” said VanBrederode. “We are begging for services to put these kids in. It’s not about trying to put them in jail but there’s got to be a safe environment to put them in.”
“If a parent or guardian cannot provide that safe environment then we need to get back to group homes and we need to have a structured schedule for that child,” VanBrederode said.
Monroe County’s budget this year increased funding to provide four new probation officers for the JEDS program, which maintains a re-offense rate of just over three percent.
As of October 2022, 24 states in the U.S. have no minimum age for prosecuting children.
Support services for juveniles in Monroe County:
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