We're coming for other reckless placard perps, too!
Mayor de Blasio said on Thursday that he may expand to other agencies a just-announced new policy to deny parking placards to recklessly driving NYPD employees — a policy that NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea commended.
"We have had a process in place for many years as part of our quality control, if you will, to make sure our officers and employees [who get placards] are not scofflaws," Shea said, referring to the existing system, which did not take into account camera-issued violations such as speeding and automated red light tickets. "I think this [the new policy] is reflection of changing times, new technologies, new metrics are available, so I think it's a good thing. We have an expectation that our officers and employees follow the rules as good citizens."
The new policy stems from a months-long Streetsblog investigation that revealed that NYPD employees get moving violations on their private cars at twice the rate of the general public. City Hall now says it will make sure officers who have multiple moving violations — including those issued by cameras, which don't play favors — don't get city-issued parking placards.
"That is a good thing that we're going to look at all the evidence and there will be consequences," the mayor said on Thursday, one day after the news broke of the new policy. "This is true not only for NYPD, but for all city employees: if you are a city employee and you are violating the law, you're going to have a problem. This is about Vision Zero and keeping us all safe, but it's also about the integrity that city employees should practice. So this is a step froward to create a real atmosphere of consequences and holding people to a fair standard."
City Hall declined to comment beyond what the mayor said, so there's no indication of a timetable. The new policy on NYPD parking privileges begins next year.
