The Legal Aid Society, in a recent letter, called on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to immediately modify and reassess how the NYPD interacts with already vulnerable communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite a decrease in crime and a rapid increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases amongst the NYPD, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea has not committed to any change in policing practices, reports The Intercept.

The letter highlights examples of recent NYPD interactions, from arrest to arraignment, for low-level or quality-of-life offenses which led to New Yorkers being held in crowded cells for long hours while in NYPD custody, making it impossible to heed the advice of health experts to social distance and isolate. In fact, over a third of all custodial arrests for the last two weeks of March were for petty misdemeanors and non-violent felonies.

“What we are concerned with the most is that the NYPD is utilizing their resources for low-level enforcement of quality of life offenses rather than concentrating and reallocating their resources to what should actually be a priority in this pandemic,” said Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project.