QUESTION
What demographic information is tracked for individuals who receive summons in NYC?
3:02:06
·
161 sec
The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) does not track demographic information for individuals who receive summons in NYC.
- OATH captures information listed on the summons, such as names, addresses, and sometimes business names.
- Demographic data for individuals who come in is not gathered due to the majority appearing by telephone.
- Geographic data like ZIP codes is not tracked as it may be faulty, and OATH refers to enforcement agencies for more reliable information.
- Council Member Restler emphasizes the importance of understanding the residential data of summon recipients to make assumptions about race and income.
Lincoln Restler
3:02:06
Do you track the demographics of the individuals of individuals that receive summons?
3:02:13
Do you have information on race, gender, even income level of the recipients of these summons?
Asim Rehman
3:02:20
We don't.
3:02:20
That information we we captured the information that is on the summons itself And so you'll have you'll have names, addresses, sometimes these are business names and not kind of natural persons.
3:02:32
Nor do we gather any of that information for people who who come in.
3:02:38
And we couldn't since the majority of them are doing it by telephone.
3:02:40
I think you'd find the same response from many tribunals around the country that the individual demographics of the the the folks who appear at the tribunals is not captured.
3:02:52
And then there's an issue of geography.
3:02:54
You know, some instances are issued across the five boroughs but we don't track geographic data because we find that sometimes the geographic data itself is faulty.
3:03:05
You know, when inspectors are in the field and they write down a ZIP code.
3:03:08
It may be an incorrect ZIP code.
3:03:09
It may be a ZIP code that falls outside the Five boroughs.
3:03:12
So so we don't feel like the the data regarding geography is something we can rely upon to know, like, what is the geographic makeup of where these summonses are issued, I'd refer you to the enforcement agencies who may have more reliable information on where they do their issuance.
Lincoln Restler
3:03:32
Look, I I certainly wouldn't expect that that's perfect data.
3:03:36
I appreciate that there are faulty elements to it, but it's the best we've got.
3:03:41
And in a world in which we don't have more demographic information, about who are the recipients of these summons, addresses tell us a lot.
3:03:51
If we know people live in Brownsville versus the Upper West Side or you know, South Shore versus Brooklyn Heights, it tells us an important story.
3:04:02
And so, you know, I do hope that we can work together to better understand the residential data of who are receiving these summons because it sounds like that's the most viable way for us to to make some assumptions about race and about income if we don't have access to that date at this time.
Asim Rehman
3:04:22
We'd be happy to follow-up with the about that.
3:04:24
And if if my statement regarding demographic data, you know, was an overstatement.
3:04:29
I go back to the office and someone explains that there's a subcategory of certain summonses from certain agencies that do capture that.
3:04:35
We'll look into whether that's something we actually record in our systems.
3:04:39
I'm not sure if it is, but the summonses are generated by the agencies.
3:04:44
And so if some of that is captured, I don't wanna misspeak on
Muriel Goode-Trufant
3:04:46
that.
3:04:47
Sure.
Lincoln Restler
3:04:47
Yeah.
