Public security has at all times been the North Star of this administration. Maintaining our metropolis secure is not only about crime stats — it is usually about how persons are feeling. And New Yorkers have robust emotions about unlawful mopeds and scooters, particularly when they’re driving the unsuitable method down streets, on sidewalks, or at midnight with none lights, and when they’re modified to extend noise and disturb neighborhoods.
The rise of the moped period has terrorized lots of our pedestrians. Seniors and older adults are afraid of being run down proper on their very own block. Dad and mom are afraid their kids could be injured by somebody popping a wheelie. And on a regular basis residents dread that sound as they hear it approaching.
However typically the usage of these unlawful automobiles is greater than a hazard or a nuisance, typically it’s criminals. Criminals usually use unlawful mopeds and ghost automobiles to trip round and snatch cell telephones, jewellery, and wallets from New Yorkers, or worse, to flee after committing a taking pictures, theft, or one other violent crime.
Our administration won’t tolerate crime or riders who suppose the foundations don’t apply to them; that’s why we have now been taking motion on this subject since day one. And as summer season begins and extra of those automobiles are out, we have now ramped up enforcement all around the metropolis, resulting in us to confiscate and impound greater than 100,000 of those automobiles since 2022. That’s over 100,000 ghost automobiles with solid, unlawful, or no license plates, together with over 62,300 unlawful two-wheeled automobiles. These automobiles — which are sometimes unregistered, uninsured, or stolen — are sometimes utilized in crimes or implicated in accidents. Additionally they deprive law-abiding taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in unpaid tolls and costs.
We now have been clear: We aren’t going to let individuals reside in worry, and we’re not going to look the opposite method. Final week, we despatched one other 200 of those unlawful automobiles to their remaining vacation spot: the scrap heap. We crushed these automobiles, as an alternative of reselling them, to allow them to by no means be utilized in against the law or to terrorize harmless New Yorkers once more. Whether or not we’re getting unlawful weapons or unlawful ghost vehicles off our streets, on the subject of public security, we are actually crushing it.
The destruction of those unlawful automobiles sends an vital message to everybody who drives on the streets of our metropolis: Nobody is above the regulation. Should you drive an unlawful automobile in New York, you’ll face the results. And so will your trip.
And the numbers present that our effort to rid our metropolis of those automobiles helps us ship a safer metropolis for residents of the 5 boroughs. This 12 months has seen a virtually 86 p.c lower in grand larceny patterns, in addition to a 68 p.c lower in theft patterns involving mopeds. Extra broadly, there was a 57 p.c lower in all index crimes reported involving mopeds year-to-date. That is all along with our efforts which have pushed down general crime throughout our metropolis; with the persevering with drop in main crimes we’ve seen in April, Might, and to date this month, we’re on monitor to have our sixth straight quarter of declining crime.
I wish to thank NYPD Commissioner Tisch, Sanitation Commissioner Lojan, and the women and men at each New York’s Best and New York’s Strongest for serving to us get these unlawful automobiles off our streets, as soon as and for all. Because of their efforts, New York Metropolis stays the most secure large metropolis in America and the very best place to boost a household. However it is usually a spot the place you possibly can reside realizing your metropolis is searching for you — day and evening, in colleges and in subways, on the streets and on the sidewalks.
