City Has Set Up Ticket Quota In Crackdown On Parking Placard Abuse, Police Union Official Charges
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Stunning charges Tuesday night claimed that the city is establishing a new parking ticket quota system going after drivers with government-issued permits.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, city cash registers are apparently going to take in an estimated $6 million more from tickets issued to city workers who abuse their parking privileges and park illegally.
"To the extent that you are identifying $6 million in additional revenue, which is about 50,000 tickets – that says to me that that's a quota," said Roy Richter, President of the NYPD Captains Endowment Association.
The word "quota" is something that makes police officials cringe. But sources said the city's new budget estimates that revenue from parking tickets will go from $515 million to $525 million.
Sources said that accounts for more tickets being issued due to the new crackdown on parking placard abuse, which was announced with much fanfare by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
"Quotas are something that the Police Department over the last three or four years has done an awful lot to try and move away from them, because we don't our officers to be answering to quotas," Richter said. "We want them answering to the community."
De Blasio made it clear that when he said he would hire 100 new traffic agents and establish a new 16-member NYPD permit abuse squad, it would be paid for with ticket revenue.
"We fundamentally believe this initiative will pay for itself," de Blasio said on May 25. "Again, we'd love nothing more than for the abuse to end, and then there would not be as many fines. But we believe it will pay for itself."
The new crackdown on permit abuse came after the mayor appeared to compound the problem by issuing 50,000 new permits to teachers, principals, and other school employees.
A spokesman for the mayor insisted there are absolutely no quotas.
"The point of this program is to enforce good behavior by cracking down on anyone abusing their privilege," said de Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein. "If you park where you're not supposed to, you're going to get a ticket."
But Richter countered, "There's obviously a disconnected between the budget people that are basically announcing a quota for a number of summonses they want issued in order to provide funding, and the reality of what policing is in New York City today."
Ironically, this comes as a federal judge approved a $75 million settlement in a federal lawsuit accusing the NYPD issuing nearly 1 million summonses to fill quotas.
The summonses were for things like violating the open container law and disorderly conduct, and were dismissed. As part of the their settlement, the NYPD has to retrain its officers.