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Upper West Side Precinct Still Handing Out Few Speeding Tickets

By Emily Frost | March 29, 2016 6:31pm
 20th Precinct officers handed out just 13 speeding tickets during the most recent 28-day period.
20th Precinct officers handed out just 13 speeding tickets during the most recent 28-day period.
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NYC DOT

UPPER WEST SIDE — After acknowledging last month it had trouble handing out speeding tickets, a local precinct failed to turn the trend around in March, police said. 

The 20th Precinct, which runs from West 59th to 86th streets, handed out just 13 speeding tickets between Feb. 29 and March 27, said Sgt. Felicia Montgomery, the precinct's lead traffic officer.

That number was barely more than 2 percent of the 647 total moving violations officers in the 20th Precinct wrote during the most recent 28-day period ending March 27, she said. 

Officers targeted drivers using cellphones and texting while driving at higher rates during the period, issuing 96 tickets for cellphone use 23 for texting, she said. 

Earlier in March, Montgomery admitted that the precinct has a hard time handing out speeding tickets as much as it would like because of the technology and setup needed to catch speeding drivers. 

Residents and members of Community Board 7 responded with a call for more tickets to be written.

"This is nuts. That's 22 speeding tickets over the last 3 months, and DOT has reported that 59% of off-hours traffic just on Amsterdam Avenue is speeding," said one Neighborhood Square commenter responding to the low number of speeding tickets in recent months.

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