Zero Tickets Issued By Police At Times Square On New Year's Eve
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Just one day after Police Commissioner Bill Bratton admitted publicly that there has been a slowdown in low-level crime ticketing by officers, more surprising statistics have been released.
Times Square was packed with an estimated 1 million revelers on New Year's Eve, not to mention thousands of police officers. And yet, zero tickets were issued for low-level crimes. And that number is not just for New Year's Eve, but rather the entire week containing the holiday.
There were no tickets for an open container of alcohol, no tickets for public urination, no tickets for double parking, no tickets for furry, costumed characters hassling tourists to take their picture.
There were only 23 tickets for such infractions the week before during the Christmas holiday, compared with more than 650 summonses per week the previous year.
"I would describe it as a slowdown," Bratton said. "They never stopped working, 911 calls were responded to, arrests continued to be made, crime continued to go down."
Zero Tickets Issued By Police At Times Square On New Year's Eve
Monifa Bandale with Communities United for Police Reform said the slowdown shows the city can do without the heavy-handed police tactics.
"We hope that Mayor de Blasio will take what's happened in these past couple weeks as a snapshot of how the city can look without all this aggressive policing," she told WCBS 880's Monica Miller.
Times Square is a jarring example of a slowdown in low-level arrests across the city amid tension between rank-and-file police and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Following the shooting deaths of now-Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on Dec. 20, New York City has seen a more than 60 percent drop in the number of low-level arrests. Summonses have plummeted by more than 90 percent.
Commissioner Bratton said Friday that officials are working "to bring things back to normal.''
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