The NYPD is regularly towing unmarked police cars - leaving detectives stranded on the street with no way to transport suspects in handcuffs, the Daily News has learned.
Police in Tow Row, NYPD Towing Detectives City Cars
The NYPD is regularly towing unmarked police cars – leaving detectives stranded on the street with no way to transport suspects in handcuffs, the Daily News has learned.
Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said tow operators working for the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau are meeting their daily quota – four tows and 20 summonses – by towing detectives who are legally parked or who have no choice but to double-park.
Recently, a Brooklyn detective investigating the hit-and-run that left a staffer for Mayor Bloomberg in a coma was called to the district attorney’s office. When the detective left the meeting, his car was gone, Palladino said.
Palladino said unjustified tows have occurred while one or more detectives were:
– Arresting a Bronx murder suspect.
– Escorting a frightened witness to a Brooklyn murder scene.
– Notifying a murder victim’s relatives and arranging to take them to the precinct.
– Arresting a burglary suspect – who laughed when the detectives realized their car was gone.
“It’s embarrassing,” Palladino said. “It takes our detectives four to six hours, often on overtime, to get the car back. In the meantime, another detective has to be called to come pick up the detectives who are stranded, or that third detective has to drive to court, or wherever, with the other two detectives and wait in the car.”
In response, the detectives association turned the tables yesterday, tailing an NYPD tow truck and its Internal Affairs escort in order to witness the problem first-hand.
The DEA did the same thing last week and even photographed a tow truck parked in front of a hydrant.
The tow blitz appears to be a continuation of City Hall’s crackdown, begun in 2008, on city-issued parking permits.
Palladino has been able to document 180 tows, including 40 from an informal survey of detectives. Most tows, he said, involved cars that were legally parked or weren’t impeding traffic.
An NYPD spokesman, Inspector Ed Mullen, said the parking placards used by detectives prohibit parking “in front of hydrants or in bus stops and crosswalks.”
But Palladino said that while patrol cars aren’t being towed, probably because people would laugh, detectives are not given the benefit of the doubt.
“The department wants us to reduce crime, solve our cases and make arrests, and sometimes that requires us to park illegally,” Palladino said. “If the practice continues, escapes and injuries are inevitable.”
Oy vey
And we are depending on interagency cooperation to protect us from terrorists?
Oy vey!
avi
Mayor Bloomberg, stop the quotas and all this shenanigan will stop. It’s a vicious circle with the taxpayers ending up at the losing end. More tickets (quotas) mean more revenue but also means things like this which end up costing the city!
Chaim
Why is it only wrong to ticket and tow police cars that are parked legally. I have been ticketed when parked legally. I got it off by fighting it in court but thats still not ideal. Police cars park illegally all the time. by law they can do so when on police business. they use they’re cell phones all the time and are only allowed if necessary for they’re roll in law enforcement personal calls are not allowed. I was at a red light on sunday next to a cop e both had our windows down and he was talking on the phone and I could tell he was talking to his mother. The bottom line is that police have been taking advantage of the law and when they get towed they should suck it up and play by the rules. sometimes you get hit when you shouldn’t but if you think back you’ll realize you deserve it.
ZNY
Crazy. By the way the Police car and FiDNY ambulance in the illustration photo are movie props.
victim of tow
He who lives by the sword,shall die by the sword
mendel
Police vs. Police cant get a better laugh
Dan Vietta
LOL THIS IS SO STUPID IF YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE THIS THE CAR BEING TOWED IS A PICTURE CAR FOR A FILM SET LOL