“If you see something, say something,” the New York post-9/11 ads read. But now, the New York Police Department says that if you submit your videos of people leaving their cars idling, the city will actually “pay something.”
Two New York City City Council members Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) and Donovan Richards (D-Queens) are introducing a bill Wednesday that will pay up to 50% of the revenue from court summons revenue if they film someone leaving their car idling and submit it to the Department of Environmental Protection.
The DEP will have the final discretion on the pay out, but depending on the incident, this could mean thousands of dollars offered for people to turn in their neighbors for victimless crimes.
Fines for violating the idling vehicle law would range from between $350 and $1,500. If the same offender is caught again within a two-year period the fine will jump to a range between $440 and $2,000.
The DEP even says they will offer “training” for people who want to go around “catching” citizens on video leaving their cars idling. This “training” will be offered five days every year.
“On my block alone, I could produce 20 tickets a day, easily,” banker George Pakenham said. Pakenham made a documentary called “Idle Threat” back in 2012.
He says this is all fair practice because idlers are polluting the environment. But what he and the DEP have failed to mention is that even if all citizens produced zero emissions, nearly 85% of pollution is caused by huge, multinational corporate polluters.
That leads critics to say that this new law is about anything but saving the environment. Instead, one Manhattan resident, Mike Lichtenstein said that the purpose seems to be about revenue generation and “creating an atmosphere where tattling on your neighbor is encouraged – even rewarded.”
Last year, a mere 209 violations were issued at a relatively low fine rate, producing a meager $93,010 in total fines, according to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. But with these beefed up fines, New York could produce revenue in the millions annually… and that really seems to be the point.