Source in German: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/app-wegeheld-falschpark... Here's an English article: https://road.cc/content/news/258976-german-app-lets-cyclists...
But it only really does anything for Taxi & Licensing Commission-plated vehicles (taxis, rideshares, black car services, that kind of thing). For every other vehicle, it doesn't do shit, and the cops don't care. They largely don't even live in NYC and most of them commute to work in cars. There's a big culture of police not enforcing parking regulations on themselves, so you see rampant placard abuse and personal vehicles parked illegally all over sidewalks and such near police stations. The cops mostly have a windshield view of the city (they almost never patrol outside of a vehicle, and they don't live here), so they see themselves as drivers and the inhabitants of the city themselves, especially cyclists, are othered.
So it's a horrible combination all around and practically what it means is that cops rarely do shit about vehicle infractions but go after cyclists with a vengeance. And the mayor is too chickenshit to do anything about it; he's afraid of upsetting the police union, and the police union is terrible (it almost always sides with cops even when they are guilty of absolutely egregious abuses of power).
Police unions are the only unions that people on the right like, and they're the only unions that people on the left dislike. It's a weird inversion.
Inebriated police driving off duty are also a significant problem in the outer boroughs and are rarely prosecuted in any meaningful way for doing so...
If nothing is done about the above, seems like there's little chance that parking in bike lanes or on sidewalks in front of lunch/snack spots is going to be addressed.
Well, I guess COVID-19 is a reason.
Im joking. But it sucks that the law is not enforced, despite this being a serious hazard.