If the NYPD is serious about traffic safety, its rank-and-file haven't gotten the message.
In the last two days, two off-duty NYPD officers were arrested for fleeing the scene of a collision they caused while under the influence of alcohol.
On Thursday morning, 32-year-old officer Brayan Terrazas was arrested for drunk driving after fleeing the scene of a collision where he had struck and injured a pedestrian.
Terrazas ran a red light on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, just before 7 a.m., police sources told the Post. Officers pulled him over about a quarter-mile away. When he got out of the car, "he was swaying while he was walking, had watery eyes and reeked of alcohol," the Post reported.
The second collision occurred late last night at around 1 a.m. within the confines of the 6th Precinct, which covers the West Village.
The driver, 30-year-old NYPD officer Samantha Medina, strike a 24-year-old pedestrian mid-block on Christopher Street between Hudson Street and Greenwich Avenue.
Medina was arrested and charged with fleeing the scene of a collision involving injuries, driving while intoxicated, and refusing to take a breathalyzer test.
NYPD officers have a long history of dangerous drunken driving, as Streetsblog has documented.
In 2016, off-duty traffic cop Nicholas Batka, 28, hopped the curb at Bedford Avenue and North 8th Street and struck four college students — killing one, 21-year-old Andrew Esquivel.
Batka was fired and charged with assault, manslaughter, homicide, and driving while intoxicated. In the tragedy's aftermath, then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said NYPD officers were involved in three "drunken-driving episodes" per month, but downplayed the issue.
"That is not a problem in the department," Bratton said, "but we treat it very seriously."
It's unclear if Bratton's successor, current Commissioner James O'Neill, feels the same way.
Streetsblog has reached out to NYPD for comment.
