Reminder to NYPD officers: All that illegal and unsafe parking you're doing is illegal and unsafe.
That's the point behind an "administrative information" memo that went out to all cops on Tuesday, reiterating that "absent 'urgent or necessary police action,' there is no valid verifiable defense for parking any vehicle operated by a member of the service, on or off duty, with or without a department-issued parking permit" in bus stops, bike lanes, crosswalks, fire zones, no standing areas and other areas where it is obviously illegal and unsafe to park.
The memo was greeted with guffaws on social media, where advocates for safe streets have long pointed out that cops are well aware that they are not allowed to park in such areas, yet do so regularly. And they do so with impunity, given that the NYPD has consistently not punished repeat offenders, as Streetsblog reported last year.
In addition, Mayor de Blasio's budget cuts this year eliminated two units that were in charge of going after placard abusers.
"We expect this will go down the same way that it always does," the keeper of the seminal Placard Abuse Twitter account told Streetsblog on Wednesday morning.
Plenty of people on Twitter agreed out that it's unlikely anything will change, given how NYPD officers have institutionalized their dangerous and illegal behavior and are almost never punished (the mayor doesn't even crack down on cops who have more than a dozen speeding tickets on their personal vehicles):
The Grand St Bike lane exists so that entitled @NYPD90Pct can park conveniently and go shopping.
"lmao how about every square block around a precinct in brooklyn where theres no sidewalk anymore," added @ResSipsa on Twitter.
And an Upper West Sider, Ryan Frank, added, "@NYPD20Pct, please stop parking in the turn lane on Columbus and 81st. You guys have allocated space for parking. Turn lanes are not for you to park your personal vehicles. Doing so blocks the view of the bike lane and creates a safety hazard."
The NYPD did not respond to an email seeking comment about the memo.
Sixty people died in the first three months of the year, 50 percent more than the first quarter of 2018, which was the safest opening three months of any Vision Zero year.
