78th Precinct Issues 16 Failure To Yield Summonses Since Thursday

After receiving a lot of flack for not issuing a single ticket for speeding one month last year, the 78th Precinct seems to be stepping up its game in 2014. They’re currently running “failure-to-yield” stings in our area, and have issued 16 summonses to drivers since Thursday, January 23, according to a press release from Councilmember Brad Lander.

Here’s how the stings have worked: Last Thursday and Friday, an undercover police officer would walk through an intersection, and another officer would be there to stop and issue summonses to drivers who failed to yield to the pedestrian, who had the right of way. And they plan to continue these stings, so drivers, take this as a warning to watch out — and not just for the tickets, but for the safety of pedestrians.

“Drivers should know that the next pedestrian you fail to yield to may be an undercover cop,” said Lander. “Failure-to-yield is the top cause of pedestrian injuries. Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri and the 78th Precinct are showing how the NYPD can be a leader in making Vision Zero a reality.”

These stings come after the first meeting of the Park Slope Street Safety Partnership last month, where the 78th Precinct’s Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri spoke about the challenges to pedestrian safety they’ve faced, particularly around the Barclays Center. At the time, he reportedly said the Precinct didn’t have enough resources to ticket these sorts of moving violations.

To put those numbers into perspective, in December, the 78th Precinct issued 26 summonses to drivers who failed to give right-of-way to pedestrians; in all of 2013, they issued 96, for an average of 8 per month.