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88th Precinct Lags Behind Most of Brooklyn in Traffic Tickets, Data Shows

By Janet Upadhye | October 30, 2014 4:53pm
 Two little girls hold candles in memory of 9-year-old Lucian Merryweather who was killed by a man driving an SUV that jumped the curb in Fort Greene. "This affects me because it is dangerous on these streets," said young person Esme Bauer (not pictured here).  "I've lived here my whole life and I know we can make it safer." "You can be late sometimes when you are driving your car," she added. "You can slow down."
Two little girls hold candles in memory of 9-year-old Lucian Merryweather who was killed by a man driving an SUV that jumped the curb in Fort Greene. "This affects me because it is dangerous on these streets," said young person Esme Bauer (not pictured here).  "I've lived here my whole life and I know we can make it safer." "You can be late sometimes when you are driving your car," she added. "You can slow down."
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DNAinfo/Janet Upadhye

FORT GREENE — It's been one year since 9-year-old Lucian Merryweather was killed by an out-of-control SUV driver while he crossed DeKalb Avenue with his mother and little brother.

The driver, who was charged with criminally negligent homicide, was speeding and failing to yield to Merryweather and his family before the Nov. 2 crash, which also left three others hospitalized.

Despite the death and a push to issue more tickets, the 88th Precinct, which monitors Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, lags behind most of the borough in issuing summonses for speeding and failure to yield to pedestrians, police statistics show.

Officers from that precinct have only given out 143 speeding and 86 failure to yield summonses as of the end of September. That's 82 percent less than the precinct that issued the most summons — the 70th, which covers Ditmas Park, with 1,329 for speeding and failure to yield  — and more than 60 percent less than the borough average — 599 summonses, police data shows.

The 70th precinct has triple the population compared to the 51,000 in the 88th precinct, according to 2010 census data, but it still has double the number of summonses per capita.

"Speeding and failure to yield are the two most dangerous traffic violations and contribute to the most pedestrian deaths," Brian Zumhagen of the traffic safety advocacy group, Transportation Alternatives, said. "More New Yorkers die from speeding cars than from drunk driving and cell phone use while driving combined."

Still, the 88th precinct has ramped up its enforcement in the wake of Merryweather's death — issuing just 56 tickets In 2013, a quarter of what it issued this year.

Hilda Cohen, organizer of pedestrian safety advocacy group Make Brooklyn Safer, said the rise in summons is also due to the city's Vision Zero policy, adopted earlier this year, which mandates the NYPD issue more speeding summons at the precinct level.

And though she is glad the precinct is issuing more summons she called their numbers overall "incredibly disturbing and disheartening" compared with those of other precincts in the borough.

Social scientist and documentary filmmaker Roy Germano, who lives in Clinton Hill, met with precinct officials in September to discuss the low number of summonses being issued and was told that it was due to lack of resources, he said.

Precinct officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Capt. Peter Fiorillio, the commanding officer of the 88th Precinct, has also cited resources as an explanation at prior precinct community council meetings.

Still, Germano is skeptical of that excuse because the 88th Precinct was one of the top in the borough for issuing summons for cellphone use while driving — 1,640, the fourth most in the borough.

"I think it’s a poor excuse because somehow the 88th found the resources to write 1,640 summonses for cellphone use," Germano said. "It’s really a question of priorities and incentives and the 88th Precinct needs to make speeding and failure to yield a priority."