Queens precinct offers cop-of-the-month prime NYC sidewalk parking

A Queens police precinct’s parking coverage turns its “Cop of the Month” honorees into scofflaws.

A painted blue rectangle on the sidewalk close to the nook of 91st Ave. and 168th St. in Jamaica is a prize for the best of the 103rd Precinct’s most interesting.

The prime parking spot, instantly throughout from the station home, is marked by a professionally-printed plaque hooked up to a chain-link fence.

However the NYPD’s personal Patrol Information — a handbook of guidelines and laws for officer conduct — explicitly forbids sidewalk parking of non-public automobiles.

“Members of the service are reminded that there isn’t a legitimate verifiable protection for parking their car (with or and not using a Restricted Parking Allow [police placard]) … [on a] sidewalk,” the handbook reads.

The Patrol Information additionally reminds officers they don’t seem to be allowed to double park their automobiles, park in bus or bike lanes, or in “no standing” zones.

The NYPD laws echo metropolis regulation, which prohibits parking on sidewalks, double-parking, and parking in “no standing” zones, no matter whether or not or not a automobile has an official company placard.

As at many different police precincts within the metropolis, the foundations don’t appear to use on the stationhouse in downtown Jamaica.

Subsequent to the 103rd′s Cop of the Month’s spot — with out blue paint however nonetheless on the sidewalk — is a parking house assigned to the commanding officer of the precinct. On the opposite facet, there’s a sidewalk parking spot for the pinnacle of the 103rd′s detective squad.

Beside these, 4 official-looking plaques mark spots on the sidewalk for the precinct’s lieutenants.

All of the plaques are hooked up to a chain-link fence surrounding a industrial car parking zone, which was largely vacant when the Every day Information visited the precinct final week.

“The cops may all have parking for his or her automobiles if solely they have been prepared to half with some US forex,” longtime space resident Tom Hillgardner advised The Information, referencing the industrial lot, run by Jamaica First Parking.

“Nevertheless it doesn’t seem that they wish to do this.”

As a substitute, the stretch of 91st Ave. adjoining to the precinct home is signed for police parking on the curbside. The sidewalks on each side of the avenue — a brief one-way avenue — have been impassable as a result of automobiles parked nose-out on the sidewalk.

On 168th St. simply north of the precinct home, indicators with an analogous design to the “Cop of the Month” plaque hung from the chain hyperlink fence, declaring the east facet of the road for “licensed car parking.”

That very same stretch of avenue is a “no parking” zone, in response to official Division of Transportation signage — although metropolis parking regulation permits some placard parking in these zones, as long as these automobiles should not on the sidewalk.

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A Division of Transportation spokesperson declined to touch upon the parking state of affairs on the 103rd Precinct home. An NYPD spokesperson didn’t reply to a number of requests for touch upon parking on the precinct.

Requested in April about sidewalk parking across the twenty eighth Precinct in Harlem — the place one man’s 232 parking complaints to town in March went unanswered — an NYPD spokesperson advised The Information the division was taking the state of affairs severely.

“We take heed to our communities and we all know that parking round our precincts is a persistent concern,” the spokesperson mentioned in a press release earlier this month. “It’s troublesome as a result of variety of individuals who work in a precinct and the quantity of parking out there.”

Metropolis Council members lately have taken up police parking and normal enforcement of parking laws. At an April assembly of the Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure committee, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell advised metropolis lawmakers that curbing police parking abuse was considered one of his priorities.

“It’s in all probability considered one of my largest pet peeves, parking on sidewalks,” Chell mentioned.

“The NYPD has the duty to each implement and observe parking laws,” the committee’s chairwoman, Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, advised The Information this week.

She famous that on the April assembly, “NYPD leaders promised to enhance the Division’s strategy to this problem — internally and externally. I look ahead to holding the NYPD accountable to this dedication and dealing with the administration to curb parking violations citywide.”