Now that Mayor de Blasio has a stated goal of reducing pedestrian traffic fatalities to “zero,” the NYPD are cracking down on jaywalking. The effort got some negative attention back in January, when a confused 84-year-old man ended up with a head wound after getting into a “struggle” with a group of cops who caught him illegally crossing the intersection of 96th Street and Broadway. It now seems that the police are taking a gentler approach to the issue: The New York Daily News reports that the officers of Brooklyn’s 68th Precinct (which covers Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and Fort Hamilton) have been handing out mock jaywalking summonses.
The “tickets,” which look a lot like the real thing, are made out to “John Doe of 1234 Any Street/Avenue” inform recipients that “the pedestrian failed to exercise due care when crossing a roadway creating a safety hazard” and orders them to “appear at the nearest intersection,” “in the crosswalk,” and “crossing with the signal.” (The reverse side is printed with a list of safety tips.) You don’t even need to do anything wrong to get one of these weird things — someone from the NYPD told the Daily News that officers were doling them out to all commuters as they waited at crosswalks. Meanwhile, NYPD chief Bill Bratton said this morning that his department has only issued 300 real jaywalking tickets since de Blasio became interested in fighting this losing battle.
