Feliz and Chief Obey discuss ghost car enforcement operations

All right, moving on to ghost cars.

So as we know, there's a lot of different agencies that are involved when it comes to enforcing rules related to ghost cars, fake paper plates, and et cetera.

And I know there's been some changes.

The sanitation department is playing a bigger role.

Can you talk to us about the different agencies and the different processes and roles that each play?

Including the NYPD?

Sure.

The sanitation department addresses vehicles that are derelict.

So they are below some certain dollar value, some dollar value.

And the sanitation department, and they're just sitting on the streets, and the sanitation department has the authority to get rid of them themselves.

The police department has a lot going on with

ghost cars and non-derelict vehicles and Chief Obey can talk to you about some of our enforcement there.

Okay, so with Ghost Cart, Ghost Blade Operations, it's an interagency initiative.

So it's not just done in a silo, just the NYPD.

We work very closely with our law enforcement partners, typically along bridges and tunnels.

So New York State Police, MTA, the NYPD, PAPD.

Year to date, we've had about 19 joint operations and resulted in 291 arrests.

12,000 plus summonses issued and 1,278 vehicles seized.

In your district, I know that there were some concerns.

You know, that work continues along Fordham Road and some of the allocations that you gave us.

I don't have that specifically.

I'll get back to you on that.

But the work we do is totally separate from what sanitation does.

We work along bridges and tunnels, and it's a multi-agency effort.

Right, yeah.

So about two years ago, a while back, had a hearing on the issue of ghost cars, and we were told that the NYPD didn't have enough space to tow or to be able to properly enforce the rules on the issue of ghost cars.

Is that still the case?

I know you've been working on getting new towing space.

So it's totally separate.

I know that's what a council member always talks about, but this is totally separate.

So as a result of the multi-agency efforts that we have with the other law enforcement agencies, the storage is not an issue for us at all because we tap into the MTA and the TBTA.

They have ample space when it comes to storage, so we don't suffer from that problem.

It's separate from...

that other type of work.

Okay, good.