Brewer asks panel how to bring pedicab drivers into licensing
Brewer asks the panel for specific steps to license more pedicab drivers. Harris says criminal court summonses are the wrong tool because discovery and jail exposure lead to dismissals; civil summonses with seizure authority would create accountability and bring compliance.
Thank you, and I want to acknowledge I've been joined by Councilmember Krishnan, and Councilmember Brewer, I'll let you go first this time.
My question is, given the fact that you know better than anybody else, perhaps, what the challenges are of the...
Possibilities for the future with the Taxi Limousine Commission if we're able to pull that off.
How specifically would you suggest we get some of these individuals licensed?
In other words, you have the bills in front of you, but you know more than I think most of us about what you might be more specific about how to make the industry better in the hopes, too, that TLC takes over.
But that's not the– there's many steps that would have to be included.
I was wondering if you could suggest some of them.
Sure.
So the first thing is the New York City Police Department does a great job.
They're utility players, and they're expected to enforce all sorts of laws.
Criminal court summons is their forte.
That's not the place where these summonses should be heard.
First off, when you issue a criminal court summons, discovery kicks in, there's jail time applied.
We shouldn't be sending people to jail for doing their work.
So the problem is that these summonses are dismissed because the police cannot comply with the discovery components.
For an offense that requires jail time.
So anything that they do for unlicensed drivers is ineffective because like Kenny and McCann said, a couple of days later they get back their pedicab.
If this was regulated civilly, and whoever regulates it civilly, it could be a combination, but if the police department or the TLC or any other agency issued a civil summons,
that was and had accountability built into it.
They could seize the pedicab for an unlicensed operator.
They would be found guilty because the discovery or the standard of proof is different than in the criminal court.
And you would be able to seize that summons.
So in my opinion,
That would bring compliance in line because you have accountability.
Right now, there's zero accountability for any of the summonses issued, and that's why the enforcement to date has been ineffective.