Bk, I haven't seen any comments suggesting that NYPD and FDNY don't provide indispensable service to the city, or risk their lives. Of course they do. The city would cease to function without them.

Without their personal cars, it would still keep running, though.

I said that because I've seen some fairly scathing attacks against NYPD and FDNY on this site. Although, I have seen it the other way around as well. I just don't like to see rants against the cops because a handful are doing this stuff.

Actually without their personal cars cloggingthe streets it would run a lot better. Most of these photos are taken during normal business hours when public transportation provides the most service.

All the stats show thatthe very agency responsible for enforcing thw law is the biggest violator of the law, That is not a good thing and this tyoe of behavior is not the way to get public support,

Bk #2 wrote: "I just don't like to see rants against the cops because a handful are doing this stuff."

Are you blind? A Handful? It's way more than a handful! "272 members have posted 256 violations!"

NYPD 86 violations
Fire Department (FDNY) 11 violations

Quite a bit more than a handful. And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Well, there are 38,000 officers in the NYPD. 86 violations have been reported. Some of those are questionable. Some are repeat offenses. I say "handful" because this represents less than .02% of the force. This should help qualify my statement. I'm not on anyone's side, but we need to be fair about this.

It does seem that 95% of the problem is done by 1%, but that doesn't make it entirely right. I have been convinced by the pro-police posters that personal cars in the SEZ are a nuisance we can put up with. It's too bad certain precinct houses like the 19th in manhattan or Astoria, queens have little parking or others are remote to public transport. Previously, I would have said they should commute like everyone else. And forcing NYPD/NYFD to live in the community is not an option...should be considered but not forced... NYC is getting too exp. for all of us.

I am not a driver, and have never owned a car. i walk and use public transport, and still manage to go all over the city, and I note that we need Transportation alternatives, and the parking issue is one small part of the deal

But I have determined that the REAL problem with so many fake, and expired and abused permits and lack of enforcement thereof--this includes Police outside their precinct SEZ..no need to parking in Kew Gardens handicap spot when you work for PSA 73 in Brooklyn. You should lose all your permit privileges. Also, the PBA card, and phoney "fraternal" order stickers should give no benefit.

all of these fugazies just ruin it for officers who do the right thing. and make us all angry at the real police.

to me it is an extension of broken windows (little parking problems go unnoticed and it seams like the lawlessness all around). This should all be said that crime rates are so low that we are fighting about PARKING and QoL (thanks to many initiatives including the implementation of Copstat and better top brass). in some places this same board would be talking about violent crimes.

(full disclosure. I have been arrested (20 years ago as an unruly punk hangin in the pj's) and dealt w/ NYPD many times since (i have reformed) , and the 1% rule applies. everyone acted professionally and with courtesy--but firmly.. except once when we saw cop beat the crap out of kid who was just in the way--(good kid too). now that maybe anecdotal, but that kid was never the same. and we still speak about it. 20 years of bad PR on one bad apple.
same goes for NYFD. the bravest, but I have cousins who house burned down, and the Fire guys ripped them off blind.

Alot of us live outside the city and public transportation is not a viable suggestion therfore we are forced to drive our personal cars to and from work, Without civilian cars clogging up the streets during normal business hours I'm sure the streets would run alot smoother. We can play this game all day and blame each other but its not going to help. It's always the NYPD that gets painted with a broad brush when something bad happens, we are all running around parking illegally, thats just not the case. SEZ around the Precinct are designed to let Officers park around the Precinct to get to work and if that upsets some people around the Precinct so be it we have to get to work. Write to the Mayor and ask for another viable solution to Police Officer parking around the Precincts very few Precincts have parking lots except 1PP.

The parking at 1PP is a joke if you are not a full bird or higher. It's not all that much better at any of the Manhattan commands.

Yes, the police dept is painted with a very broad brush but that has always been the case... perception is 90% of the problem.

I would love to work in the precinct I reside in, but that is not allowed. Its nearly impossible to get a command that would make for a pleasant mass transit commute - i think i'll win lotto before i see the request i put in for a closer command ever come thru (actually, i think retirement will come before wining lotto ;)

The idea of requiring NYPD officers to be NYC residents is noble but doomed... the job can't hire enough recruits to cover the loses by attrition as it is... close the potential hiring pool further and the shortage of officers would be dangerous to all to say the least.

Just-Us - this site has been a great tool for combating the fake / counterfeit permits. I appreciate your full disclosure - most cops are professional, but as with all segments of our society there will be exceptions - i thank you for not using one brush to paint all of us

Question for the police officers here: how hard would it be for NYPD brass to take into account commuting by transit when assigning a command? Why is that so difficult?

Never Happen, even if we did take public transportation with our crazy hours and making arrests,investigating cases it stinks to be held hostage by a transit schedule. If I've been at work for 36 hours I just want to get home not wait for a train.

This is an Brooklyn IAB SEZ. There is an office at this location.

#14, this permit indicated that the owner of the car works at the 73rd precinct, which is 2.4 miles from the hydrant at which the car was parked. And again, it's a hydrant. It's totally illegal.

BlueTrumpet, you're advocating the type of lawlessness that you purportedly protect civilians against. Your irresponsible response contributes to the lack of trust some civilians have for NYPD that has been described by many officers posting on this site.

In any case, I just called 311, who transferred me to police headquarters. The person who answered the phone told me that parking at a hydrant is not legal, even with an NYPD permit in an SEZ. She said something about a recent crackdown on permits at hydrants in SEZs in Chinatown.

I also contacted the community affairs office of my local precinct to confirm what the woman at headquarters told me. They weren't there, but I'll call back tomorrow morning.

How about this:
a. limit spots near a precinct house in the SEZ only for Policde personal cars with posted signs
b. a limited no. of parking permits located at the station house--just enough per shift. you park, sign in, pick up a permit put it in your car.

that limits and controls the number of permits out there, and no one should need one near their home. and fewer folks taking permits, and fewer sellers or copying them.
If this permit says 73rd precinct above, I think I have seen that precinct elsewhere, maybe copies have circulated. it seems that way. when I see these permits popping up all over the place.

#13 (6:01 PM), that makes no sense to me. If you've been at work for 36 hours, do you really want to be stuck in NYC traffic? Personally, I never felt more "held hostage" than when I was chained to my stupid vehicle.

Besides, I don't care how good a driver you are, if you've just been working hard for 36 hours, I don't want you behind the wheel of a two-ton death trap. It's really irresponsible of the NYPD to set schedules that force you to drive home after a shift like that.

This may be a ridiculous idea, but would be interested in any MOS comments -- if someone really does a 24 or 36 hour shift, does the job ever pay for car service or give them a ride home?

Also, in a shift situation like that, there's a place to sleep, at least for a short while, at most precincts, yes?

BK,
More to come on Chinatown in a week or two, but the information you received is correct. It is illegal to block hydrants, bus stops, etc (the Safety Hazard infractions on this site) in SEZs, and at least one precinct command (5th) has decided to clean it up. They are also going much farther to clean up permit abuse outside the SEZ.

Brooklyn North (with 84th Pct.) is also doing great work on Adams Street, which has been completely clear, we understand. Rumor has it they will be moving on to more locations in Downtown BK.

Most Pcts have Dorms at least most Det Squads when you've been working on a case for 3-4 days you usually get a few hours of sleep in the rack before going back to work or to drive home. No one is driving home after working 36 hours straight without a few hours sleep so rest assured we are not getting behind the wheel of are cars without any sleep. As for the job being irresponsible they really have no choice we are at the mercy of whatever sort of case we are investigating, ie. shooting, homicide, robbery a missing a suspicious DOA or god forbid a cop shot. Plus we are also at the mercy of the DA's office when we make an arrest, if they are backed up we could be their for hours. So like I posted before, with such unpredictable tours and not knowing what the day will hold when we sign in to work public transportation is just not a reality with such an unpredictable job.

The subways, buses, taxis and car services run 24 hours a day. Most commuter trains don't run overnight, but it turns out you have dorms. I still don't see the problem.

ES #23 -- looks like not everyone got the memo about Adams St.: http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/988 (still looks like an improvement, though)

Anon #24 -- we get pretty crazy hours where I work, complete with all-nighters, etc. (no offical dorm, though). Policy is to send folks home via car service after 8 p.m. Client picks up a lot of this, but fundamentally it's just a cost of doing business & having these crazy hours. Where our office is, it's cheaper by a long shot than paying for parking every day.

One key problem is that there's no market pressure on the city, so pressure has to come from constituents. There are a lot of pcts where it would be stupid not to use local parking (safely), because parking isn't that limited or expensive and the transit is dreadful. In Chinatown, or 68th St., or the West Village, which are very transit accessible and parking is outrageous, it makes no sense not to go to some sort of hybrid transit / car service approach. One of the many reasons it doesn't happen is that nobody wants the $$ to come out of their budget, even if it's ultimately wasteful for the City.

Indeed, the information given to me by the woman at NYPD headquarters (as well that contained in efficient_street's post) was confirmed by a representative from the community affairs office of my local precinct during a phone call earlier this morning. Parking at a hydrant is illegal for all vehicles, NYPD permit or not.

Apparently not everything goes in an SEZ, no matter who you are, or what kind of permit you have. It's good to see that the 5th and 84th are taking action against anyone who blocks our hydrants, crosswalks and sidewalks. I have a feeling this will be catching on in the coming years.

Every couple of years Pcts C.O.'s tell the cops to not park on the hydrants but in the end park around Pcts is to limited so we park in ALL availiable spaces

#28, it's not right that NYPD and FDNY should have to search for spots. In my opinion, the city must absolutely designate more legal parking for you.

I have a hard time believing that this is a MOS vehicle. Most MOS drive a POS.

#31 - although you state the truth i've known a few officers that drive what they can't afford... ever get "collections" calling the TS for someone? heh

BTW, my ride is not a POS... i had to settle on something that runs... i cant afford two cars, and trying to move 2 cars for SCR twice a week would make me insane ;)

#31-- I'd say that the MOS around here drive pretty decent cars, certainly better than our POS, which is worse than anything I've seen a city permit on. But then, we don't use it to commute.

It's also a question of priorities. On a certain LE whining, er, ranting website, one of the most common insults related to this website is that in addition to being liberal tree huggers (those of us who aren't evil capitalist pig landlords, that is), we are all bike riders (!) and are therefore sissys or worse. My inner armchair psychoanalyst suggets that these folks have both a great deal of ego as well as their sense of masculinity tied up in their cars.

So, it's probably foolish to infer much from how nice the car is.

Salguod... i knew a sgt that drove a nissan with 270k miles on it... but that was in a fairly bad neighborhood and few of us wanted to park anything nice with our permit on the dash around there.

I don't have anything tied up in my car expect for a few thousand dollars worth of car payments... my ego and masculinity are linked to my hair... i still have it and most of my friends don't ;)

And Sal, lets be honest... this site hasn't gotten a new post about it in days on the other site... once the plates left this site most of the interest left also... except for BlueTrumpet... but I expect he's got some deeper issues ;)