The fallout from the assassination of two patrolmen is beginning to have a real-world impact as the number of traffic tickets and summonses for minor offenses issued by New York Police Department officers has experienced a precipitous decline of 94 percent,
the New York Post reported.
Compared with the week beginning Dec. 22, 2013, overall arrests were down 66 percent, while traffic violations were down by 94 percent, according to the Post.
Across New York City, in the last week only 2,128 summons for low-level offenses were issued in the pas, compared to 26,512 for the previous week. During that same time period, drug arrests are also down from 523 to 115, and for guns, arrests were down from 35 to 14, according to police statistics cited in the
New York Daily News.
On Monday, a police supervisor
told the Post: "My guys are writing almost no summonses, and probably only making arrests when they have to, like when a store catches a shoplifter."
In response to an increase in the number of online and phone threats directed toward NYPD officers following the Dec. 20 murder of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjan Liu, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association issued a directive to its members that all calls should be responded by at least two patrol cars.
An email was circulated to NYPD officers telling them that two patrol cars should be dispatched to every radio call “no matter what the opinion of the patrol supervisor” and not make arrests “unless absolutely necessary.”
“My directive to my officers is to go home safe. What’s occurring throughout the city as of yesterday was that lug nuts on private vehicles and department vehicles [were] loosened up on the cars,” Sergeant Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins told New York City radio station
1010 WINS.
The result is that response times to non-emergencies has increased to as much as four hours.
The delays, however, are not a work slowdown, but a consequence of real fears among officers, a source tells the New York Post.
“This is not a slowdown for slowdown’s sake," the source said.
Threats directed toward police officers have increased across the nation, including recently in California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida where patrol cars were targeted by shooters,
according to The Wall Street Journal.
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