Cameras on NYC street sweepers may soon nab alternate side parking scofflaws
Serial street-sweeper scofflaws, beware. You could soon be on camera.
The City Council Wednesday voted to give its consent to a proposed state law that would enable street sweepers to automatically issue alternate-side parking tickets to any vehicle slotted alongside the wrong curb.
'This is a common-sense bill that will make our streets demonstrably cleaner,' Council Member Lincoln Restler (D – Brooklyn), who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. 'We're talking about cracking down on the worst offenders to ultimately facilitate greater compliance, which means fewer rats and better quality of life for all New Yorkers.'
The Council voted 41 to 8 to pass the legislation.
The bill is a so-called 'Home Rule message,' meaning it merely indicates the City's intention to cooperate with a state law that's yet to pass.
The state bill — known as S1891 in the senate, and A4523 in the assembly — has yet to get out of committee in either house.
If passed, the law would allow the city to mount cameras on the Department of Sanitation's fleet of street-sweepers to photograph and automatically ticket any vehicles parked along the curb during cleaning hours.
The automated tickets would be capped at $50, and be subject to an additional $25 late fee.
'Just as bus cameras protect transit riders, broom cameras will safeguard public health and urban dignity,' said state Sen. Robert Jackson (D – Manhattan). 'This isn't about punishment—it's about progress.'
The law would also allow photographs taken by the sweeper-mounted cameras to be provided to law enforcement in response to a warrant.
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