John Deutzman's Blog

I can't believe I made it into your comment box, John, before Jmax123....feels like Joe DiMaggio's hit streak has been stopped!...LOL
Anyway, you raise great points and ask legitimate questions(the TV reports were superb investigative reports). Since I don't live in the city, I don't know how ticket patrol is assigned, but something tells me those officers assigned to such detail, are not on the fast track to detective! That's not to say that deeper investigation standards should not be implemented by the city, particularly toward vehicles that look to be abandoned. In this day & age, quality over quantity, needs to be recognized. However, I'm sure the administration wants those coffers filled as often as possible, so the interests are certainly conflicted.

John - This is a long standing problem, and as you noted, it is not limited to the NYPD by any means. Several years ago my brother-in-law had his car stolen from in front of our apartment in Park Slope. It was located 3 weeks later in East New York with multiple parking violation tickets on it. At the time I was working for an internet start up and so I started a side project to help address this problem. You can see the result of our efforts at http://www.StolenCarReports.com. We currently have over 27,000 registered citizen volunteers and hundreds of law enforcement agencies working to provide citizens with information about stolen vehicles so that they can spot them on the street and direct law enforcement to recover them. The program has assisted the police in recovering scores of vehicles. As the program grows it's overall effectiveness will increase exponentially. Thank you bringing the publics attention to this ongoing issue.

I just watched the story on the 10pm news and its really a shame that this is what so many NYPD are doing instead of being out there giving tickets to drivers who are parked or stopped at red lights in the crosswalks (yes people that is a violation..smh (shaking my head) @ I have my license for 15 yrs this june and haven't had a car since 2000 and I STILL know the rules.. its a real shame..and people who are parents such as myself I have to walk IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET to cross the street b/c of the cars in the crosswalk with my 2 yr old child, not to mention drivers dont want to stop for pedestrians. News flash .. yes PEDESTRIANS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY AT ALL TIMES ..read your drivers manual .. I swear people get their drivers license out of a Cracker Jack box and where are the NYPD when that happens? Obviously doing ticket dumpling along with eating their fast food and drinking coffee .. and wait .. our tax money gets put to this right? SO can someone really say what the NYPD do seriously? Because I only see them doing as I mentioned above and also see them real gun happy using excessive force .. and can someone tell me why it seems to always be excessive force towards people of darker skin tones? Why you NEVER see in the news that the police shot down 30 bullets or so in someone of pale skin color? I'm still puzzled on this .. n yes I am translucent skin tones saying this because someone has to speak up ! ..

Ticket writing cops do nothing to keep the roads clear nor do they keep the public safe.
I had a recent experience where it took over eight (8) hours to file a stolen vehicle report. Days later, the vehicle is ticketed for being illegally parked by the NYPD. The ticket appears on the New York City official website. I hopped on my bicycle to the location listed on the ticket in an effort to recover my car. However, because the information is posted on the website weeks after the fact, the car was not recovered . However, I noticed something interesting while searching for my car. During the numerous times I searched the area, I saw countless stripped cars but more importantly, there was absolutely no police presence in this area. No patrol cars, no foot patrols-nothing. I went to the precinct and spoke about this with the sergeant and was told not to tell them how to do their jobs. Nobody's telling them how to do their job, we just want them to do their job which is to protect and serve the public. I can train a monkey to write tickets.

p.s. The vehicle was eventually recovered but I was never notified by any city agency. A Carfax report revealed that the vehicle was recovered. I researched the matter and found that not one of the 38,000 uniformed police officers recovered the car-it was recovered by the New York City Department of Sanitation. Perhaps Sanitation should patrol the streets and the NYPD should pick up the garbage.

John - There is a computer system run by the National Crime Information Center that police can check to see if the vehicle is stolen. These ticketing officers are being negligent in checking. Many top performing police officers do check and this is how the majority of vehicles are recovered.

Isn't it amazing that the NYPD always knows which vehicles they can tow to make some quick cash and which vehicles might not ever be picked up. They seem not to like towing vehicles that they might not ever get paid for. The only reason that any officer would pile up tickets on the same vehicle is because they need to meet or exceed a quota given to them by their bosses. It's not brain surgery, but it sure is an easy way to tax the public! I'm still waiting for Mayor Bloomberg to comment on ticket-writing quotas and the ridiculous waste of money that is put into "street cleaning" trucks. Did I miss that?

Daniel

drny,

What Precinct is this?

John

John being a retired Sergeant from the NYPD ,this is just the tip of the iceberg.Keep digging you'll find alot more,because it's there !!

John - Not to excuse the unprofessional actions of some cops, but in defense of NY's Finest, there are quite a few cops that are serious about recovering vehicles. The majority don't have the time, resources, or inclination, but there are some real gems who really strive to assist the victims of auto theft. We have law enforcement regularly searching out database for information on stolen vehicles. We recently launched a beta WAP site that is accessible on mobile phones, and which enables police officers to search our stolen car database right from their cell phones.
A similar secure program using the actual NCIC database of all stolen vehicle in the nations, can't be too far in the future.

These detached trailers park near Home Depots around the city. Look near Home Depot on Woodhaven Blvd just past Union Turnpike in Queens. These trailers are parked on Woodhaven Blvd. Also along St John's cemetery. Cops write tags on them. Problem is the NYPD does not have tow trucks to tow these vehicles. The 1-888-NYC-SAFE number is a joke try calling and reporting something suspicious. There is no report number given or name, no follow-up. No means for them to accept electronic evidence such as email photos. A real disgrace. Cops are so desparate for C summons and 250s that they use the tombstones in the cemeteries to obtain names and date of births for the captions on reports. It is a real shame what the job has become. A real numbers game.