A Pratt Professor Discovered That The NYPD Made Millions Ticketing Legally Parked Cars

It appears that the NYPD has been regularly ticketing legally parked cars, and the error is a huge boon for the city.

Ben Wellington, a professor at Pratt who runs the data site I Quant NY, explored a little-known rule, adopted by DOT in 2009, that allows motorists to park in front of sidewalk pedestrian ramps not connected to a crosswalk. The rule change, first proposed by Councilman Vincent Gentile, was designed to free up precious parking spaces.

In an interview with Fort Greene Focus, Wellington said the study spawned from a statistics class he was giving at Pratt.

“It’s part of a larger project to show that if they release data they can end up running more efficiently and better,” said Wellington.

However, it appears some police officers didn’t get the memo and have continued issuing tickets to vehicles parked in front of the ramps. By diving into city data, Wellington discovered there are 1,966 spots in the city where five or more of these tickets were issued — generating about $1.7 million every year.

Not all of the ramps are legal for parking, Wellington noted, so he created a handy map for neighbors to see where five or more tickets have been issued so residents can check out the area and see if NYPD is ripping them off.

Check out this map and see for yourself.

One such ticketing hotspot, where the data 105 tickets issued over a 2.5 year period, is at 234 Willoughby Avenue across from the Pratt Playground. Though there is a street cleaning No Parking sign, that goes into effect Tuesdays, from 8:30am to 10am.

Wellington’s analysis also discovered that a nearby precinct, 77th in Crown Heights/Bed-Stuy, was among the city’s worst when it comes to unjustified parking tickets. This year, they’ve collected $101,803 from issuing tickets for parking in front of pedestrian ramps.

The good news is that police responded to Wellington’s data by promising additional training. In a statement to I Quant NY, the NYPD noted the majority of wrongly-issued tickets were written by patrol officers. When the rule changed in 2009, the department focused on training traffic agents, who write the bulk of summonses.

“As a result, the department sent a training message to all officers clarifying the rule change and has communicated to commanders of precincts with the highest number of summonses, informing them of the issues within their command,” the statement read.

The NYPD thanked Wellington for bringing the issue to their attention.

“Thanks to this analysis and the availability of this open data, the department is also taking steps to digitally monitor these types of summonses to ensure that they are being issued correctly,” they said.

For his part, Wellington was heartened by what he called a “true and honest response from the NYPD.”

Additional reporting by Donny Levit and Justin Fox.