Unarmed officers
Added duties boost risks for traffic agents
They're not just meter maids anymore.
NYPD traffic enforcement agents, once relegated to just writing parking tickets and directing traffic, have been given new duties over the last few years from recovering stolen automobiles to handling fender benders to responding to 311 complaints about blocked driveways — all jobs traditionally handled by actual police officers.
Union heads are trying to quash the new responsibilities, which are couched as part of city pilot programs, until the agents get extra compensation or protection.
“It's a risk and a safety issue,” said Syed Rahim, the president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1182, which represents traffic enforcement agents. “If the police do this job, then the motorist knows that the officer has a gun. With traffic enforcement agents they do not care.”
According to Rahim, an average of three agents were spit at or verbally or physically assaulted on the job every week before the pilot programs began.
More are expected as agents do work usually performed by police officers, he said.
Before 1996, agents wore brown uniforms and were known as “brownies.” They started wearing blue after becoming part of the police department but don't carry a gun.
The new duties are designed to alleviate the burden on the NYPD so officers can focus on crime fighting, officials said.
“(Agents) are being used as force multipliers because they have the blue uniform — and that can put them at risk,” said former City Councilman and mayoral candidate Sal Albanese, who has advocated for traffic enforcement agents for the last two decades.
“These new jobs are also saving the city a lot of money by not tying up police officers in squad cars when agents are being paid half as much.”
NYPD officials said traffic agents haven't officially taken over these duties but are assisting police with them.
When it comes to the stolen car recovery program, for example, agents who spot a stolen vehicle must alert the NYPD so an officer can be dispatched.