Chair Abreu asks DCWP about enforcement under Section 20-762

Thank you.

As you know, the penalty structure under Section 20-762, which contains the city's ban on the sale of motorized scooters, is much less lenient.

If DCWP finds a business to be in violation of the motorized scooter ban, a civil penalty of $1,000 must be imposed, which increases to $2,000 for any subsequent violation within one year.

However, we see much fewer fines issued by DCWP for violations of 20-762.

This is surprising as it seems that most devices that would be illegal to sell under 2610 would also be illegal.

to sell under 2762.

Can you please explain why DCWP continues to primarily charge businesses with violations of 2610 despite its penalty structure issues?

And does DCWP have a policy to always assess whether a business could be charged with a violation of 2762 when conducting investigations for violations for 2610?

On the last part, Chair, yes, when we do an inspection of one of these businesses, either online or in person, we're going to look at violations across the board and issue summons accordingly.

We've issued 50 summons against illegal motorized scooters over the last nine months of 2026.

I think what that number doesn't capture, though, is the very large number of citations and tickets that NYPD, and confiscations, I should say, that NYPD has issued, which is part of the administration's.

So most of the enforcement, I would say, Chair, is on the street rather than point of sale.

So regarding 2610, you're open to changing the penalty structure.

We are.

I believe, yes.

And with respect to 20-762, should we expect more enforcement on that statute for...

The sale of these devices that we believe can also be just as captured, you know, equally captured under 2610?

Yeah, let me respond in two parts, Chair.

With respect to the changing the penalty structure, I think we would be open to it.

My understanding, though, is that Local Law 39 does set the first-time violation at $0.

That was done by legislation, not by rulemaking, so we would need to work with the council in order to change that.

With respect to motorized scooters,

I think our enforcement approach reflects the fact that when we do an inspection, we're looking for violations across the board.

The fact that we have 50 summons for motorized scooters versus a lot more for other violations suggests to me that most of the violations are not happening at the point of sale and that most of the confiscations NYPD is engaging in, it is likely, and again, I don't want to swear by this,

it is likely that many of those folks got those devices from outside the city.

But certainly we would be open to conversations with the council about how to strengthen point-of-sale enforcement.