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1986

NYPD parking on sidewalks is more of a "who watches the watchmen" problem unfortunately.

It doesn't have to be! Parking enforcement wasn't always within the NYPD's remit. Until 1996, NYCDOT was responsible for parking enforcement.

Sadly, even if this were the case, there is no mechanism for one NYC city agency to fine another one.

This is why the sidewalks next to city parks take forever to get shoveled after a big snow storm.

I would settle for a bit of towing, or even just fining the individual cops who park their personal cars on the sidewalk. Parking of city-owned vehicles is also a problem, but the former seems easier to enforce per your point.

Parking enforcement in NYC is currently also handled by the sanitation department. They can and do ticket cars blocking street cleaning operations, which parked personally-owned vehicles of cops do interfere with.

I'd love to see a division of DOT have a bounty program for illegal parking. They do it for idling trucks, why not do it for vehicles parked in bike lanes/illegal double parking/etc?

The type of enforcement that the public supports is only a tiny sliver of what the kind of people who make the most use of such programs are willing to submit.

It only works for idling trucks because the person letting the truck idle is almost never the owner and the person idling the truck is usually doing work so they're not around to notice they're being reported and there's a lot more public apetite for enforcement against businesses than the general public and they write it off as a cost of doing business.

If you open up the floodgates of anyone v anyone that generic parking enforcement entails I give it about a week before some "super reporter" gets curb stomped by an uber driver who's having a bad day. And then you'll have public scrutiny, the tough question that come with that and the entire program is likely to be walked back as a result.

Not to mention completely opaque tinted windshields and windows, and intentionally defaced or corroded license plates..

Corruption is part of the job description, for the NYPD.

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