Report: Apparent Police Slowdown Cost NYC $5 Million In Lost Fines
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A suspected work slowdown by New York City police at the start of the year has cost the city an estimated $5 million in lost fines.
The New York Times, citing figures provided by the city comptroller's office, reports that the biggest loss came from unwritten parking tickets. It amounted to about $3 million.
Police statistics show that in the last three weeks police issued about 44,000 fewer parking tickets than during the same period last year.
Additional revenue was lost from speeding tickets, other moving violations and petty crimes.
The NYPD said this week that enforcement was returning to normal.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton visited the 84th Precinct Thursday to thank officers there for their hard work.
The apparent slowdown was seen as evidence of growing rancor between police officers and City Hall in the aftermath of the slayings of two patrolmen last month.
Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were gunned down while sitting in their police car in Brooklyn Dec. 20.
Both officers worked at the precinct Bratton visited Thursday.
Wednesday, de Blasio said he would not apologize to police for past comments he has made, calling them "fundamental beliefs."
"Things that I have said that I believe are what I believe, and you can't apologize for your fundamental beliefs," de Blasio said.
Police union leaders accused de Blasio of throwing officers under the bus when, back in December, he said he and his wife Chirlane McCray have had conversations with their teenage son Dante about "how to take special care with any encounter he may have with police officers."
"I've had to worry over the years, Chirlane has had to worry: Is Dante safe each night?" de Blasio said on Dec. 3. "And not just from some of the painful realities of crime and violence in some of our neighborhoods but safe from the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors."
The remark set off a heated war of words between police unions and City Hall. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch ultimately accused the mayor of having blood on his hands after the shooting deaths of Liu and Ramos.
Police union leaders have demanded an apology from the mayor.
Both officers were posthumously promoted to detective.
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