Brewer asks TLC whether peace officers could enforce pedicab laws

I know Councilmember Brewer has additional questions, so I want to hand it over to her.

Thank you.

Just a couple because I want to hear from people in the room.

From the Taxi and Limousine Commission, you have peace officers, right?

So they could, in fact, do pedicabs.

Obviously, funding is an issue.

I know.

And I want to thank your commissioner.

We had a great conversation, and I appreciate her input.

But can you, I mean, TLC really has the authority already in some sense with peace officers to do the enforcement.

Do you believe that?

If you had more money, it would be nice.

I'll never say no to more resources.

Well, the chair said he was going to get you some more.

He's good for it, I know.

One thing I want to sort of point out, because I might not have been clear when I...

discussed what we do.

We do not, when we target on license for higher activity, we are not patrolling across the five boroughs.

You'd only have one borough.

I'm still responsible for the $180,000.

I know.

I'm the same with Pedicab.

You only have one borough.

Go ahead.

So we're not patrolling.

These are targeted enforcement operations.

And I know some of the issues that arose.

You know, I'm hearing quality of life issues.

We're not here to look to duplicate those quality of life enforcement that's handled by NYPD, sanitation, DEP.

We specifically target unlicensed for hire operations.

So when the idea of a quick response to say a noise complaint.

We may not be there.

In fact, because of the geographical constraints of the city for us and how large it is, we'll likely not be there.

So the idea that someone makes a complaint for noise and

We don't respond.

I hope I'm making that clear.

It is targeted enforcement.

And the other aspect is, you know, unlicensed for hire activity is in all five boroughs.

Any sort of diversion of resources is really going to be pulling resources from the outer boroughs.

No, I understand that.

But I'm just saying peace officers could, in fact, in the description, operate within the confines of what you do now.

It could be applied to pedicabs without getting into some of the other agencies and what they do.

You know, I'm not actually entirely sure.

I think that's true, but I won't say anything more.

Our status is through the Special Patrolman Program.

We currently have a bill out there being considered to give us peace officer status without the Special Patrolman designation through NYPD.

Okay.

And that's, so I don't want to give you incorrect information.

Okay.

But it's part of the ongoing discussion.