Op-Ed
OTHER VOICES
Traffi c congestion issue has no end in sight
When it comes to the pros
and cons of bike lanes, comedian
Whoopi Goldberg took Mayor
Bill de Blasio to the woodshed on
a recent episode of “The View.”
Big Apple traffic congestion
is a citywide issue that has
grown over time, impacting
local business and commuters
who travel by bus or car. There
is a corresponding relation
between reduction in traffic
speed and the relationship
to the corresponding loss
in street capacity. A report
released by city Department of
Transportation Commissioner
Polly Trottenberg choose to
ignore this.
Over the past 18 years
under Mayors Bloomberg and
de Blasio, hundreds of miles
of traffic lanes have been
eliminated.
This was due to the dramatic
increase in the introduction of
bike lanes, street calming and
pedestrian plaza projects.
Forcing buses to share less
street space with cars, taxis,
Uber, Lyft, UPS, Fed Ex, other
delivery and commercial traffic,
along with municipal vehicles,
has contributed to a decline in
vehicle speed for everyone in all
five boroughs.
The result is increased
conflicts with pedestrians.
This is like cholesterol build
up, resulting in hardening of
the arteries.
All of this contributes to
increased gridlock, pollution
and adverse impact to local
businesses, who count on timely
pick up and deliveries along with
adequate parking for customers.
Trying to travel around town
by automobile or bus is next
to impossible. Mayor de Blasio
promised to increase bus speed
by 25 percent in his recent State
of the City speech. Don’t count
on this happening.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
COMMON SENSE
I introduced legislation in the City Council to
require the Police Department to provide officer’s
disciplinary records to prosecutors within 24 hours of
being requested.
The legislation is common sense. Timely access
to disciplinary records will allow District Attorneys
to make informed decisions about cases, which will
in turn let them make a judgment about continuing,
dismissing, or lowering a charge.
Prosecutors must be able to determine the integrity
of the cases that they are bringing based on police
officer testimony and statements.
If an officer has been disciplined for an offense
relevant to whether they are consistently truthful,
have ever inappropriately used force, or engaged in
official misconduct, then a prosecutor might think
twice about pursuing a case based solely on that
officer’s testimony.
As it stands today, the de Blasio administration’s
expansive reading of Section 50-a of New York State’s
Civil Rights law has made it virtually impossible for the
public to know when police officers are being disciplined
for misconduct and why. A law that was intended to
protect sensitive individual personal information has
become a barrier to public accountability.
While 50-a does give District Attorneys access to
police disciplinary records, the NYPD has refused to
provide this material in a timely manner so prosecutors
can prepare their cases and move forward appropriately
with charging decisions and plea negotiations, instead
usually waiting until a trial is about to begin.
This is critically important because nearly all
criminal cases resolve in some sort of plea deal.
Therefore, withholding police discipline records until
the start of a trial makes it impossible for District
Attorneys to fully evaluate the merits of the cases that
they are prosecuting.
Such actions undermine our justice system. Greater
transparency can help make our courts run more
efficiently, and help prevent wrongful convictions that
can ruin an individual’s life.
Section 50-a is state law, but we can and should force
the police department to produce the information that
it is required to produce in a timely manner.
On Feb. 7, the committee I chair, the Committee on
the Justice System, will hold a joint hearing with the
Public Safety Committee, chaired by City Councilman
Donovan Richards, on this bill and seven others related
to improving transparency in the police disciplinary
process and curbing police misconduct. The status quo
is not acceptable.
City Councilman Rory I. Lancman
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