Cryan: ‘Daniel’s Law will always be worth the fight’

The news reports of physical attacks targeting public officials, judges, and law enforcement continue to increase.  But according to John Molinelli, spokesperson for the newly created Public Safety Information Protection Coalition (PSIPC), “Daniel’s Law serves a noble purpose, but the law is broken.”

After reading media reports of the former Bergen County Prosecutor’s opinion about the legislation’s intent and impact, I thought I might provide some clarity and context as the original legislation’s primary sponsor in the Senate and the person who crafted the successive amendments.

First, by way of background, I’ve served in the New Jersey State Legislature for almost 25 years, first in the New Jersey General Assembly and later in the New Jersey State Senate, oftentimes in leadership positions.  I have also worked and been around law enforcement for most of my life, first when my father served as Essex County Sheriff and then as both an elected official and as an Undersheriff and Sheriff in the Union County Sheriff’s Office.

John Molinelli and I agree that Daniel’s Law is noble.  The difference is that I know it is now finally working.

I know this because when the legislation was originally drafted, unanimously passed by both houses of the legislature on a bi-partisan basis, and signed by the governor, we celebrated what we thought was a commonsense solution to a horrific problem.  In response to the tragic violence visited upon Judge Esther Salas and her family, New Jersey had created the country’s first comprehensive data privacy law focused on protecting public servants and their families against threats from those seeking to cause them harm.

But despite Daniel’s Law being enacted, few data companies changed anything they were doing.

They continued to sell personal, private data and put lives at risk.  These money hungry ghouls operated in the same way they had before that tragic day at Judge Salas’ home and before the legislation was signed.

As a result, just like countless other laws in New Jersey and around the country throughout our history, the legislation needed to be refined.  The desired goal of lawmakers from the outset was to provide life-saving protection for the judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers who protect us all, and that required multiple amendments to the original legislation.

We provided the capability for covered persons to assign claims to third parties, increased incentives for companies to comply through mandatory penalties, and provided individuals greater choice and flexibility in terms of requesting redactions.  We also increased the amount of time data brokers have to comply with requests from 72 hours to 10 business days.  All together, over several years, we provided many refinements to the law to ensure it would work and fulfill its critical purpose.

Unfortunately, even after the most recent amendments went into effect, multi-million and, in some cases, multi-billion-dollar data brokers appear to have continued to prioritize their profits over the safety of those covered by the law.

Almost immediately after lawsuits to enforce Daniel’s Law were first filed, the misinformation attacking the constitutionality of the law and the legislative history of our efforts to make the law work began.

Misinformation campaigns attacking our legislative efforts and the constitutionality of Daniel’s Law began almost immediately after the first lawsuits to enforce the law were filed.  After the courts agreed that Daniel’s Law is constitutional and serves a compelling purpose, that’s when groups like the one that recently hired John Molinelli showed up.

And that’s when we all knew for certain that Daniel’s Law, with its most recent amendments meant to hold offenders accountable, is absolutely working.

I’m not saying that the Public Safety Information Protection Coalition is trying to purposely mislead the public and other stakeholders, notably my colleagues in the legislature, with their contention that despite its “noble purpose” the law is “broken”.  However, I am saying it would be much easier to explain to this “coalition” why they are wrong about Daniel’s Law being broken if they would at least bother to identify themselves and how many of their members are businesses that fail or refuse to comply with the law.

Simply put, the law needs to work.  The stakes are too high, and failure would be catastrophic and unforgivable.  Anything worth accomplishing will invariably be met with resistance but must continue to be vigorously pursued to its conclusion.

Daniel’s Law will always be worth the fight.