The NYPD threw its support behind two City Council bills on Tuesday aimed at helping authorities catch hit-and-run drivers — but stressed certain concerns.
One bill would require the creation of an alert system, similar to AMBER, that would notify New Yorkers with details of a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run collision that results in death or serious injury. The other bill would establish a reward for people who help turn in hit-and-run drivers involved such crashes.
“I think any kind of incentive that would get individuals and the public to cooperate to bring these individuals to justice is a good thing,” said Oleg Chernyavsky, the director of legislative affairs at the NYPD, during a City Council hearing on Tuesday.
Dennis Fulton, an NYPD inspector, said at the hearing that the department backs the concept of creating an alert system, which could send details of a suspect’s vehicle through text or email messages, television and radio broadcasts and telephone calls.
But the department fears that victims or witnesses wouldn’t have enough information to describe with enough detail the vehicles involved in the hit-and-runs. A vague alert could swamp the department with useless leads, Fulton warned, adding that an abundance of alerts could lead to “alert fatigue” where New Yorkers just tune them out.
“Sometimes the witness may only know that they were struck by a ‘black SUV,’ but they don’t know the license plate, the make, the model of the car or the perpetrator,” Fulton said.
There were 60 hit-and-runs involving a death or serious injury recorded in New York City during the 2016 fiscal year, according to the NYPD. Of those crashes, police made 27 arrests. An arrest rate of less than 50 percent is fanning an “epidemic” of hit-and-runs, according to Manhattan Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who sponsored the bills.
“The unfortunate reality we face is that drivers feel comfortable fleeing the scene of these collisions instead of stopping to see if the victim is OK, or calling an ambulance when they’re not,” Rodriguez said.
He pledged to name the bills after Jean Paul, the Spanish-language radio DJ known as Jinx Paul who was killed late last year by a hit-and-run driver still at large.
Before the bills come to a vote, the NYPD and officials will clarify details of the legislation, such as how the alert system will operate and from where reward funds will be pulled. But there’s more work to be done outside of the city’s purview, officials said.
One-third of all fatal hit-and-runs occur during 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, according to the city’s Department of Transportation. Juan Martinez, director of strategic initiatives at the agency, said fatal hit-and-runs are “highly correlated” with speeding and driving under the influence. He stressed the need to close a drunken driving loophole in state law.
“State law actually provides an incentive for a driver who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs to flee the scene” to avoid charges carrying higher penalties, Martinez said. “If the driver leaves the scene and is arrested hours or days later, there may not be enough evidence to charge him or her for driving while intoxicated.”
