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Council member questions NYPD on police vehicle parking issues near precincts
2:39:20
·
3 min
Council Member Crystal Hudson raises concerns about police vehicles, both official and personal, occupying pedestrian sidewalks near precincts in her district. She questions NYPD officials about plans to address this issue and return pedestrian spaces to the public. NYPD officials, including Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber, respond by explaining their approach to the problem and current efforts to improve compliance.
- NYPD acknowledges the issue and mentions it as a priority in their Compliance STAT program
- Officials discuss structural challenges in providing parking for officers while maintaining pedestrian access
- The conversation reveals unused allocated parking spots for the police department in some areas
Crystal Hudson
2:39:20
And then while council member Brewer continues to look for the Manhattan tow pound, I wanna ask if you have a plan to get both official and personal police vehicles off of pedestrian sidewalks At every precinct in my district, parked cars come right up to the tree pits, which leaves space that's too narrow for me to pass with my kid's stroller, let alone if somebody has a wheelchair, or a cane or some other type of mobility impairment.
2:39:47
And I'm wondering if there's a plan to return pedestrian space to pedestrians and pull put police cars in proper parking spots and even garages.
Jessica Tisch
2:39:55
So in my mind, I look at this in in two different two different pieces.
2:40:00
The first is the parking around precincts.
2:40:03
The second is very basic citywide parking plaque enforcement, not in this specific area dealing with with precinct parking.
2:40:16
But, like, for example, using a plaque to to leave a car, like, in a bike lane or
Crystal Hudson
2:40:22
Yeah.
2:40:22
And I'm not even trying to address that.
2:40:23
I'm addressing specifically on the block of the precincts.
Jessica Tisch
2:40:27
Oh, so you're doing you're talking about category number one?
Crystal Hudson
2:40:31
Police yeah.
2:40:31
Category number one.
2:40:32
Police cars, they're it's their personal vehicles that when they come, you know, for their shift Understood.
2:40:38
They're parking, and it's it's perpendicular to the sidewalks and half the
Jessica Tisch
2:40:41
cars on the Our commissioner of legal matters is overseeing the work in of this department in this area.
Michael Gerber
2:40:49
Okay.
2:40:49
So then there there are a number of different pieces to this.
2:40:53
And and, you know, there there is a piece, right, which is a structural piece long term in terms of just the the parking setup around certain commands.
2:41:01
There are just real challenges.
2:41:02
Right?
2:41:02
We do need to have parking for the officers.
2:41:04
But from a compliance perspective, I want you to know that one of the priorities we have at Compliance STAT is this very issue.
2:41:11
So, obviously, compliance to select, you know, what what are the compliance issues we're really focused on?
2:41:17
And one of them is parking around precincts.
2:41:19
And we will devote time to you know, we have folks from professional standards going out, analyzing what's happening around precincts, taking photos, calling COs to account.
2:41:30
Right?
2:41:30
Having them at the podium.
2:41:32
Right?
2:41:32
And saying, okay, hold on.
2:41:33
You're the CO of this command.
2:41:35
Look at this photo.
2:41:36
This is totally unacceptable for the reasons, Kaltz Weber, that you articulated.
2:41:40
And I think we are affecting a lot of change.
2:41:42
Obviously, we're happy to follow-up in terms of the particular community.
Crystal Hudson
2:41:45
Yeah.
2:41:45
I don't think anybody's come and taking any photos of the the precincts in my district.
2:41:48
I'm happy to provide the photos.
2:41:50
I'm happy to come out with the inspector, whoever does the investigations.
2:41:54
But it's a it's a real issue.
2:41:56
And it's a multifaceted issue.
2:41:57
Obviously, each precinct is unique and the areas that they serve and, you know, lack of parking and all of that.
2:42:03
But in some cases, like in the eight eight, the cars are in the bike lane.
2:42:08
And, also, you know, the bus lane at times could
Jessica Tisch
2:42:11
be We need to we need to know about that.
2:42:13
Okay.
2:42:14
We we will definitely focus on that both at ComplianceTat and with our newly centralized inspections teams whose job it is to go out into the field and look for just that type of condition.
Crystal Hudson
2:42:27
Okay.
2:42:28
And one other thing I do wanna mention about that specifically is that in the seven eight, when some of the newer buildings went up as part of Atlantic Yards, there were parking spots allocated for the police department that are not used.
Jessica Tisch
2:42:40
So Our deputy commissioner of management and budget is definitely going to be following up with you on that.
Crystal Hudson
2:42:45
You got you got some somebody for everything.
2:42:48
I love it.
Kristine Ryan
2:42:48
Yeah.
2:42:48
Well, we we had already reached out about that issue, and so we will follow-up to make sure that they got the message.