Chair Feliz outlines NYPD enforcement questions and bills

From the perspective of the Committee on Public Safety, I want to focus particularly on how our laws are being enforced on the street.

The NYPD is responsible for enforcing many of the rules governing the operation of these devices.

This includes traffic violations such as running red lights, speeding, riding on the wrong way, operating on sidewalks, as well as enforcement against devices that are not legal to operate in our streets.

The committee seeks to understand how enforcement is being carried out in practice.

NYPD data shows that traffic enforcement involving bicycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, and mopeds has increased this year.

We want to better understand how the department is enforcing speed limits and other violations involving illegal devices and how it identifies those devices when officers encounter them on the streets.

Equally important, we also want to understand and get a full picture of the operation related to the crackdown on illegal mopeds.

We know that the NYPD has been doing a lot of work on the seizure of these mopeds, something that, by the way, as we know, could be challenging.

But if we seize, let's say, a thousand mopeds during the summer and a thousand new ones enter our communities, then we will never, ever see any progress.

So it is crucial that we think about the full picture, including how we can tackle this issue at the point of sale.

The two bills in the Committee on Public Safety, Introduction No.

787, sponsored by Councilmember Brooks Powers, which would require the NYPD to report on targeted traffic enforcement operations,

and Introduction No.

1052, sponsored by Councilmember Vicky Palladino, which would require reporting on crashes involving micromobility devices.

Would both provide great information about where enforcement is taking place and where the crashes involving these devices are occurring.