Requires public safety risk assessment to include additional consideration for firearms as public safety risk.

This bill (A4977) requires New Jersey's Public Safety Risk Assessment (PSA) tool to explicitly include firearm-related charges as a factor when evaluating pretrial release risks. Specifically, it mandates that the PSA must consider any offense involving firearm use or possession - including "ghost guns" and modified firearms - as a risk factor for both community danger and failure to appear in court. The change responds to a September 2024 report by the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation (SCI), which found current PSA calculations fail to account for the heightened danger posed by firearms, especially in public discharge incidents or when firearms are modified to function like machine guns. The bill directly affects defendants charged with firearm-related offenses during pretrial hearings, altering how courts assess their risk level.