Council Member Justin Sanchez questions DOT and NYPD on towing capacity
Council Member Justin Sanchez asks what figures support DOT's claim that towing capacity is sufficient and requests tow request, completion, and response time data by borough. Rivera cites three tow pounds and says capacity is sufficient; Flynn defers enforcement towing to NYPD.
All right, we're now going to move to Councilmember Justin Sanchez, followed by Dinowitz.
Thank you, Chair.
I want to go back to towing capacity.
First, you said that DOT's towing capacity is sufficient.
What figures is DOT relying on when it says capacity is insufficient?
Enough.
Can the agency give the council the number of tow requests last year, how many were completed, and the average response times by borough?
Thank you, Councilmember.
Yeah, so just to clarify, again, we tow vehicles out of the way when we need to work on a street.
For more enforcement-type towing, I would defer to PD.
If you're asking, I guess, about the towing DOT does, I believe it's sufficient, but we could circle back.
PD, same question.
I'm sorry, what's the question?
The question is, it was stated that the towing capacity is sufficient.
So what figures is PD relying on when it says they have enough capacity?
Can the agency give the council the number of tow requests it had, how many were completed, and the average response times by borough?
Okay, so the second half will get to you after this, but I do want to say, as was mentioned earlier, we don't have a Manhattan toll pound, but we do have three toll pounds around the city, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens.
Brooklyn toll pound, vehicle capacity, 392.
That's the vehicle capacity.
Bronx toll pound, 350.
Queens toll pound, 250.
And it is sufficient.
If we're over, typically, in my experience, maybe about 60 plus vehicles, but again, I've testified to this.
For the most part, these vehicles are in and out.