QUESTION
What is the cause of the disparity in jaywalking tickets issued to Black and Latino New Yorkers?
0:58:05
·
11 min
Deputy Chief Thomas Alps acknowledges the data showing a disproportionate issuance of jaywalking tickets to Black and Latino communities.
- He explains that an analysis found jaywalking summonses are not commonly issued citywide, with 23 of 77 police precincts not issuing any.
- Alps states the 115th Precinct issued the most at 45 summonses year-to-date, which he attributes to data-driven 'precision policing' in areas with high pedestrian fatalities.
- He maintains the 115th Precinct conducted significant educational outreach on traffic safety prior to enforcement.
- Alps defends the use of jaywalking summonses as necessary for ensuring predictable behavior and safety among all modes of transportation.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
0:58:05
But press reports and data analysis from the council have found that j walk in tickets are disproportionately given to Black And Latino New Yorkers.
0:58:16
Has there been an any analysis or review to determine the cause of this disparity.
0:58:23
And certainly, no 1 can claim that only black and Latino j walkers, ever j walk So just wanted to understand that a bit better.
Deputy Chief Thomas Alps
0:58:37
So good afternoon.
0:58:39
Accounts members.
0:58:40
My name is Deputy Chief Thomas Alps.
0:58:42
I'm the executive officer of the transportation bureau.
0:58:46
I did an analysis of the Jay Walking summons is written year to date in in the New York City Police Department.
0:58:55
And let me just describe my findings.
0:59:00
First of all, less than 1% of our criminal court settlements is issued year to date.
0:59:07
Involved a J.
0:59:08
Walking offense.
0:59:12
23 of the 77 commands across the city have not written 1 Jaywalking summons.
0:59:19
8 of the 77 commands across the city have only written 1 Jaywalking summons.
0:59:25
So that findings, this is not widespread and it's not common that a Jaywalking summons is written.
0:59:33
And we're talking for the 4 dash 04 VTL Defense, criminal court summons.
0:59:39
When you look at the arrests year to date, related to Jaywalking, where Jaywalking offenses is constituted or or put on an online booking sheet.
0:59:49
There were 49.
0:59:51
I mean, I'm I'm scar.
0:59:53
Let me give you the correct number on that 1.
0:59:58
But I'll say 49 out of 77 commands.
1:00:00
Have no rest for Jaywalking look when you do a look back to 2022.
1:00:06
The remaining 28 commands throughout the city and we're going back to 2022.
1:00:11
17 commands had 1 arrest related to Jaywalking.
1:00:15
7 had 2 arrests related to Jaywalking.
1:00:17
And 1 command had 3, 1 command at 4, 1 command at 5, and 1 command at 6.
1:00:23
So, again, when we when we talk about arrest, for Jay Walking and and and criminal court summons is issued for Jay Walking.
1:00:30
It's not common and it's not widespread.
1:00:36
So then we look at the Jaywalking summonses issued year to date.
1:00:42
So I looked at at citywide, there was 439 Jaywalking summons is issued year to date.
1:00:49
And when I looked through the commands of 77 commands, the 1 command kind of popped off the page was the 115.
1:00:58
The 115 had written 45 summonses.
1:01:02
Year to date for Jaywalking.
1:01:04
It's a large number.
1:01:06
We haven't seen a number like that in maybe 2 or 3 years.
1:01:09
So it was particular interest of us.
1:01:12
Let's look at this command.
1:01:14
What's going on?
1:01:15
I'm aware of the concerns that the council members have.
1:01:20
I understand the data on the back end and that it disproportionately affects certain communities, and I and I understand that concern.
1:01:31
We have guidelines in place within within a police department that prohibits biospace policing, who had implicit bias training currently being conducted and and given to all the executives within the police department, which I have a partake in, and we've had fair and impartial training.
1:01:51
Conducted by all the officers in the police department.
1:01:54
So again, I understand the data on the back end is of concern and was concerned to me.
1:02:01
So I look at it.
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I do to dive into the to the 115 specifically.
1:02:08
So I look at the the 115 data.
1:02:11
They write 45 j j walkers year to date.
1:02:16
This is a command that is number 1 in the city for pedestrian fatalities.
1:02:21
Okay?
1:02:21
They have 4 year to date.
1:02:24
3 of their 4 is on 37th Avenue.
1:02:28
2 of those 3 was a pedestrian crossing outside the crosswalk.
1:02:34
And it was a pedestrian error that resulted in fatality.
1:02:38
The other 1 was 2 blocks off Northern Boulevard, which is a corridor that DOT and NYPD are working in in unison and doing an initiative where we're doing both, we're doing outreach.
1:02:56
NYPD is doing enforcement.
1:02:58
And then there's engineering concepts being conducted on that corridor in and of itself.
1:03:05
So there's a lot of focus in that area.
1:03:09
So I laid out the the production fatales for you.
1:03:14
Again, I said, 3 of them happened on 37th Avenue.
1:03:20
So then I mapped out the 45 j walkers that was written in in the 115 for the year.
1:03:26
Approximately 75% of that 45 were written in close proximity to 37th Avenue where those 3 fatalities happened.
1:03:37
Plus, there was 20 pedestrians injured on that corridor, that 37th Avenue.
1:03:42
So gives clear indications there's precision policing taking place.
1:03:46
They're looking at data.
1:03:47
They're understanding it.
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They're saying there's fatalities happening here.
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There's pedestrians getting struck and injured.
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This is where we need to do it.
1:03:56
The other 25% of that 45 that they wrote year to date was written on Roosevelt Avenue.
1:04:02
Very familiar, very topical Roosevelt Avenue, business detergent.
1:04:06
They've had 19 collisions year to date on at Roosevelt Avenue where a pedestrian was struck and entered.
1:04:13
Again, 8 points of precision policing.
1:04:17
They're recognizing data.
1:04:19
They're they're doing their enforcement based on that.
1:04:22
What really was of interest and and highlight we do our first mode to combat traffic fatalities specifically pedestrian fatalities, is outreach.
1:04:36
We have 3 teams, and our present personnel go out into the street when we hand out flyers.
1:04:41
It educates the the public and and and the pedestrians how to navigate the roadway safely, give some tips.
1:04:49
This precinct, which is the highest precinct in production fatalities, has handed out 907 907 flyers year to date.
1:04:59
That's versus 291 last year.
1:05:03
That's telling me that this command, the 115, that's wrote the highest number Jay Walker Somesis, recognizes the fact we've got a traffic safety problem.
1:05:13
In the 115.
1:05:14
We need to get out and educate.
1:05:16
As a matter of fact, that 907 surpasses all they did last year in Outreach.
1:05:22
In 2023, they wrote 897.
1:05:25
So I'm I'm just I'm looking at data and I and I'm saying, They understand the problem.
1:05:31
They're going out there to educate the public first and foremost.
1:05:35
And then when they have to do enforcement following this educational outreach, they're doing they're doing it in the right location to the right place.
1:05:46
So I said to myself, okay.
1:05:49
Let's just go back and look at 2023 then.
1:05:52
Make sure that the 115 is practicing fair and impartial policing.
1:05:57
Let's look at to make sure that they're doing they're doing it right.
1:06:01
So we look at the the 115.
1:06:04
In 2023, they wrote 13 J WALK insumences.
1:06:08
So I said, okay.
1:06:09
Where are they writing the J WALK insumences?
1:06:11
I mapped it out.
1:06:13
You look at it.
1:06:14
In 2023, they wrote 5 J.
1:06:16
Walking Somens is on Roosevelt Avenue.
1:06:18
Again, the quarter that we all know is problematic concern, business district, That year, they had a fatal pedestrian struck on Roosevelt and Beway.
1:06:27
So again, it's precision police, and they're going where they need to go on Roosevelt.
1:06:32
Their other 5 was written on 37th Avenue.
1:06:35
So they know 37th Avenue is an historic problem for them, for pedestrians.
1:06:41
As a matter of fact, they wrote their 5 psalmises, and then this year they got the 3 fatalities, which is really you know, thoughtful and insightful.
1:06:50
They know the geography, the landscape, and the problems.
1:06:54
So they wrote 500 summons on 37th Avenue, and the last 3 that they wrote in that year was on Northern Boulevard, our Vision 0 quarter that we work in partnership with.
1:07:04
So the 115 knows their community, they know the issues, and I'm comfortable and how they're doing their analysis and they're issuing the Jaywalk summons in total.
1:07:22
So again, it's not a summons that is commonly used, but it is used.
1:07:30
I would say, and I'll just point to this fact, and I'll give an example.
1:07:34
I think, you know, especially in 2024, there's all these different modes of transportation that have evolved.
1:07:42
We got we got bicycles, we got ebikes, we got stand up scooters, we got moleheads, And then obviously, we have vehicles and we have pedestrians.
1:07:52
I think each motor transportation should have an expectation, a certainty of what's gonna happen when they're moving down the roadway.
1:08:02
And I'll use the example of a bicycleist.
1:08:05
If you're in a bike lane and you're traveling down your bike lane, you don't and you're comfortable, you're in your protected bike lane, you don't expect a pedestrian to walk out in front of you because that pedestrian can walk out in front of you and you can swerve off and go into the war roadway and get struck and killed or or or struck and seriously hurt.
1:08:24
Or you can hit that pedestrian and fall to the ground and hit your head and be seriously injured.
1:08:30
So I think there needs to be some level of certainty when you're moving down the roadway that the other modes of transportation, whether you're a pedestrian, a motorist, an ebike, a moped, a stand up scooter, that they're gonna follow the rules that we all know.
1:08:49
And when you just have straight no consequences for as we were discussing jaywalking.
1:08:58
It's You have that you have no certainty, and it's gonna cause collisions.
1:09:06
It's gonna cause fatalities as as was noted by DOT with 200 pedestrian deaths mid block, 34% of our fadils over the past 5 years.
1:09:19
And then on top of that, we have injuries that are occurring mid block as well, not just fadels that we can point to.
1:09:32
So there is, you know, we have 5360 persons who were struck or injured mid block in the past 3 and a half years.
1:09:41
That's DOT.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
1:09:42
Can I just interject the question?
