NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch defended her new crackdown on e-bikes to peeved City Council members who claimed the blitz of criminal summonses could cost immigrant delivery drivers their licenses — or even lead to deportations.
“This is not a war on e-bikes, this is a response to very real concerns that are widely held across virtually every borough, every New Yorker in this city,” Tisch said in front of the council at the executive budget hearing Thursday.
Progressive council member and Deliverista advocate Tiffany Cabán (D-22) grilled the commissioner and her colleagues on how the new criminal laws are being enforced, and doubted that officers were being objective in their handling of spots.
“It does not increase public trust in how this is being enforced if you cannot even articulate for me how officers are using this discretion,” Cabán argued, saying the brunt would fall on people of color and those who are at risk of being deported.
“A person who is more likely to be a person of color may end up in deportation proceedings, It’s not just right,” she said.
The NYPD began issuing criminal court summons for e-bike riders who break standard traffic rules — like running red lights or riding on the sidewalk — on April 28 of this year, in what Tisch said was a direct response to safety concerns she was hearing from New Yorkers.
Council member Lincoln Restler (D-33) has been at the center of the conversation around the speedy bikes, after a string of incidents at a Brooklyn bike lane in his district have resulted in multiple child injuries.
Just last weekend, a 3-year-old tot was struck by a speeding cyclist in the Bedford Avenue lane — which has heightened neighborhood concerns about safety.
Despite this, Restler also expressed worry about the criminal summons.
“I’m concerned about more people getting swept up in our criminal justice system who don’t need it,” said Restler.
“We have a Trump administration that’s trying to sweep everyone up into their deportation machine thath they can,” the Brooklyn lawmaker said.
Around 65,000 delivery drivers or ‘Deliveristas’ in NYC rely on some type of high-powered two-wheeler to maneuver orders around the five boroughs, and it is not known how many of them are undocumented immigrants.
The shift toward criminal summons by the NYPD was a result of the previous civil summons’ failure to address issues effectively, as they were mainly geared toward licensed vehicles. Tisch lamented that she had come to the council before to flag the current law’s limitations.
“I called on the council to change the laws,” she said, though she still thinks the current criminal enforcement is doing more good than harm.
“Anecdotally, I think it’s working,” she said noting that she see’s the e-bikes stop more frequently now at red lights.
“We cannot live in a consequence-free environment (and) e-bikes were generally living in a consequence-free environment,” she said.
