NYPD gives up info on seized property
THE NYPD has released 160,000 documents relating to property seized during arrests, settling a public records lawsuit that was filed nearly two years ago, advocates said Monday.
The department was hit with a Freedom of Information Act suit in August 2016 alleging that officials were illegally withholding records on potentially “tens of millions” of dollars and property seized during arrests every year.
The Bronx Defenders, a legal aid organization, also charged in its Manhattan Supreme Court suit that officials weren’t releasing information on policies and procedures surrounding the seizures.
The Daily News first reported on the suit when it was filed.
“The NYPD has never provided a meaningful accounting for the millions of dollars in cash, cars and phones it seizes, and how much of it is kept as revenue,” the Bronx Defenders said in a statement.
“After four years of requests and two years of litigation, the NYPD has provided The Bronx Defenders with 160,000 documents containing records of the cash, cars and cell phones it seized between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017.” ADVOCATES FOR a “Fair Fares” discount MetroCard program are getting commuters to phone Mayor de Blasio to fund the proposal.
Advocates with Riders Alliance and the Community Service Society hit Harlem’s W. 125th St. station on the A, B, C and D lines to launch a weeklong drive to pressure Hizzoner into funding half-price MetroCards for New Yorkers living at the poverty line, which could cost $212 million a year to cover 800,000 people.
The issue has become a budget negotiating point between de Blasio and the City Council.
De Blasio opposes direct city funding for the project, instead using it to promote his long-shot transit tax on high-earning New Yorkers that must pass in Albany. The City Council put money to cover the discount fare program in its budget proposal.
Backers of Fair Fares argue that economically struggling New Yorkers can’t wait for de Blasio’s tax to go through Albany, where state leaders have opposed it.
“New Yorkers living at or below the poverty line should not have to wait any longer for relief from the often prohibitive cost of public transit in our city,” said David Jones, chief of the Community Service Society — and one of de Blasio’s city representatives on the MTA board.
De Blasio reps maintain the wealthiest New Yorkers should pay. “He believes a tax on millionaires should fund the fare discount,” spokesman Seth Stein said.
City lawyers had claimed during the course of litigation that the NYPD didn’t keep detailed location data on these seizures. The city had also claimed the NYPD’s $25 million Property and Evidence Tracking System, PETS, couldn’t provide a precinct-byprecinct breakdown.
The Bronx Defenders can release data gleaned from these documents as long as it doesn’t contain personal information.
Asked for comment, a city Law Department spokesman said it has resolved the case — while protecting privacy. “There has been no allegation that any of the assets were mishandled,” the rep said.