An open letter to Mayor de Blasio:
He's going to kill someone — and we've warned you about him already.
We're talking about the 70th Precinct cop who owns a car with the license plate GLN7275 (you'll find it parked most days on a sidewalk or in NYPD-only parking near the Lawrence Avenue stationhouse). In March, we told you that this one cop's car had been nabbed 13 times for speeding or running red lights.
In April, you said you were concerned. You should be — because despite your concern, this one cop has been caught by speed cameras five more times since July. If camera violations counted for points on a DMV-issued driver's license, this cop would racked up 44 points in the last 18 months. (Reminder: a license is automatically suspended with just 11 points in the same period of time.)
Since camera violations don't count, this cop is exactly the kind of driver that the Council's Reckless Driver Accountability Act will help take off the road, if and when you and your Law Department can finally sign off on it. Advocates are right to pressure you and Council Speaker Corey Johnson to get it done, though there are of course legitimate legal hurdles that we know you are working on.
The good news, of course, is that you have already committed to punishing reckless cops — albeit in the lightest way possible. Earlier this month, you told Streetsblog that cops with bad driving records like this officer will lose their parking placards, which means they won't be able to just put their car wherever they want and, as a result, may not drive as much.
But that new regulation doesn't kick in for more than a year, since cops won't be applying for their 2021 parking permits until September.
For now, there's a far better way to get these cops off the road.
First, punch their plates into the Twitter bot @howsmydrivingny, as we did with our frenemy from the 7-0.
Then, whenever anyone else in the public runs the plate through the same database, you get an update.
That's how we learned about the cop from the 70th — and the five speeding tickets he's picked up since our last query.
Of course, that's a flawed approach because we only learned about this recidivist member of New York's Lamest because someone else spotted his or her car and reported it to How's My Driving.
But you could easily do better, Mr. Mayor. Tell your new Police Commissioner Dermot Shea to require his precinct's "integrity control officers" to log every NYPD employee's plate into the system and then set up automated updates.
Taking away a parking placard is one thing, but creating disciplinary files on every cop who meets the "reckless driver" threshold would be another.
For now, at least, why not call 70th Precinct CO Deputy Inspector David Wall and tell him that one of his officers is going to kill someone — and it won't look good, given that Streetsblog has now warned you about him or her twice.
A simple "Slow the fuck down" should be this cop's holiday greeting.
Thanks for listening,
Streetsblog
