Police, Parks Department Address Anger Over Tickets At Parade Grounds

After a neighbor told us about being ticketed for walking home through the Parade Grounds at dark (after which an NYPD deputy commissioner said he would look into the matter and there was more media coverage), police and the city Parks Department addressed the matter during the 70th Precinct Community Council meeting last week.

The manager of the Parade Grounds said at Wednesday night’s meeting that additional signage stating the Parade Grounds closes at sunset would be placed around the area (which we noticed while walking around this weekend), and the commanding officer of the 70th Precinct, Deputy Inspector Richard DiBlasio, said that the “signage will be corrected, and we’ll work together to make sure everybody knows what’s going on.”

DiBlasio also said that, despite neighbors’ reports to the contrary, police have consistently been ticketing people in the Parade Grounds after dark in order to “keep our parks safe.”

“The Parade Grounds has, for a very, very long time, been closed at sunset,” DiBlasio said. “Maybe additional signage needs to be posted. What you have to realize is, it didn’t happen overnight. We’ve always been out there enforcing the rules in that park. We use our discretion very wisely in that park. Unfortunately, crime happens in that park – about a year ago there was a violent incident where someone got seriously injured.

“Unfortunately, there’s been some recent crime in that area – there’s been an increase in crime in that area,” DiBlasio continued. “We don’t want to prevent anyone from using our park, but when it gets dark in that park there are different rules because it’s not safe.”

Neighbors upset with the ticketing attended the precinct meeting, and Geoffrey McFarlane told DiBlasio that he was displeased with the ticket he received for being in the park after dark for a number of reasons, including a lack of signage indicating individuals are not supposed to be in the Parade Grounds after sunset, that it was surprising to receive the ticket on a well-traveled path that “looks like a road,” and that he has used the area that connects Parkside to Caton Avenue for years without any notice from police that he was not supposed to be there.

“A lot of people resent it,” McFarlane said of the Parade Grounds tickets. “…It’s not the cops being there that upsets me, it’s the summons. A warning would’ve been nice. I have to take time off from work now for this.”

“We want to make sure you’re safe, everybody’s children are safe – our job is to create a safe environment for everybody,” DiBlasio responded. “Sure, who wants to get a summons…but the rules are the rules.”

“I’d like to thank you because you’ve brought attention to the park,” DiBlasio continued in reference to Geoffrey. “We’ll turn this into a positive thing… I’ve been through there many times, going through that center breezeway, especially when the leaves are out, the lighting there is very, very poor. It’s a bad person’s environment. I’m glad it closes at sunset. And, again, we use our discretion very wisely. We do tell people, ‘Hey ma’am, I don’t know if you know, but this is closed.”