61st Precinct Gave Out The Second Most Speeding Tickets In Brooklyn


by on Mar 18th, 2013

Source: Peds.org

Motorists trying to gun it through through the streets of Sheepshead Bay are the second most likely to be caught in all of Brooklyn, according to a report by the New York Daily News.

One hundred ninety-eight speeding tickets were issued by the 61st Precinct, putting Sheepshead Bay in second place overall in Brooklyn, according to statistics released by the NYPD.

Overall, combined with tickets handed out by highway cops, about 15,000 speeding tickets were issued in Brooklyn this past year, far fewer than the 43,920 tickets issued for talking on cell phones while driving or the 37,010 tickets issued for illegally-tinted car windows.

The tracking of speeding tickets has become a hot-button issue in recent months as multiple hit-and-run tragedies have dominated headlines across the city. As we’ve previously reported, State Senator Marty Golden has been at the forefront of trying to stiffen penalties for reckless drivers, and more local politicians are following his lead.

“This data shows that Brooklyn needs more resources and clearer enforcement goals to deal effectively with dangerous drivers,” said state Sen. Eric Adams (D-Crown Heights), a former police captain and frontrunner to become Brooklyn’s next borough president. “Until these speedsters know that they’ll be caught and harshly prosecuted for their reckless behavior, they will continue to put lives at risk on our streets day-in and day-out.”

To fight dangerous speeders, officials and lawmakers have begun pushing for a program that would install speed enforcement cameras.

According to the Daily News, NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Republican Temporary President and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Senator Jeff Klein all sent nearly identical letters to Governor Andrew Cuomo calling for installation of the cameras.

“Motorists know that there will never be a sufficient number of police officers to catch everyone who violates the traffic laws,” Kelly wrote in a letter to Cuomo, “but the presence of speed cameras can create a strong deterrent effect, serving to reduce speeding and the collision and physical injury that it causes.”

Opponents of speed cameras point to the holes they create in law enforcement such as being able to tell if a driver is drunk, if a driver is unlicensed or if a motorist is carrying weapons while fleeing a crime scene.

Speed enforcement cameras are used in more than 120 cities across the country, but in some instances they’ve prompted lawsuits and efforts by state legislatures to ban them.

The City of Baltimore recently moved to replace its entire network of speed enforcement cameras after an investigation found numerous errors in their speed readings.

A 2011 study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety credited speed enforcement cameras with reducing fatal crashes by 24% in 14 large cities where they were used.

Here is a full breakdown of the tickets issued last year, courtesy of the Daily News via the NYPD:

Top five speeding ticket precincts

94th Precinct (Greenpoint) – 555

61st Precinct (Sheepshead Bay) – 198

62nd Precinct (Bensonhurst) – 182

79th Precinct (Bed-Stuy) – 180

60th Precinct (Coney Island) – 173

Bottom five speeding ticket precincts

83rd Precinct (Bushwick) – 8

67th Precinct (East Flatbush) – 45

88th Precinct (Clinton Hill/Fort Greene) — 46

84th Precinct (Brooklyn Heights) — 48

68th Precinct (Bay Ridge) – 63

Top Brooklyn tickets

Cell phone – 43,920

Safety belt – 37,010

Disobey sign – 29,889

Tinted windows -28,815

Uninsured – 18,954

Brake lights – 9,981

Speeding – 2,873*

(Excluding the 13,535 tickets issued by Highway officers covering the borough and parts of Queens)

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  • Maxwell Smart

    perhaps its because of the unusual number of distracted,lousy, dangerous drivers in the 61…or is that too obvious

  • policeluvr

    That’s about right. Police are there for issuing nice revenue generating tickets for dubious “infractions” such as stopping at stop signs and pulling out of parking spots without a seatbelt. The heroism I have witnessed in brave officers stopping two or three Chinese women drivers at once to issue revenue generating tickets, going so far as to jump into the middle of the street and stop cars like Supermen on quiet blocks near the end of the month. Such heroism.

    Yet when people call 911 to report break-ins, robberies, men with weapons prowling the area – they don’t show up, maybe after three hours or so they’ll come to tell you there is “nothing they can do”. “Recommend” that you don’t bother filing a report. They are too busy being heroic in issuing seatbelt violations. Though only select groups receive those.

    If you drive 100mph with a suitcase of heroin in the trunk of your Bentley in front of the 61, chances are you’ll be a-okay. They might wave to you and tell you to say hello to your boss or that they’ll see you later at Rasputin for “drinks” and “dinner”.

    Nothing but respect for the heroic 61!

    • carlos

      Yes im sure cops love to give tickets and have people in the communty they serve hate them. Im sure they love the constant pressure to write more and have it used against them, if they dont produce. Im sure they enjoy the threat of losing vacation days, if they dont win in court. Its easy to blame cops. They dont get paid extra to right tickets and they certainly dont enjoy it.

      • policeluvr

        Ask people in the private sector outside of the medicaid fraud mills in the area how many “vacation days” they get. Ask them how every dubious tickets that they are forced to pay effects their grocery buying, forget about their “vacation” days. I weep for those poor officers who terrorize the “people in he communty they serve.” They really seem all broken up about it when they get caught on video framing innocent men.

        They get their “20 and out” retirement, and lifetime healthcare, we get to pay for it over and over.

        You’d make a good Nazi sympathizer. Dey vere only following orders.

        • MyBrooklyn

          “Ask them how every dubious tickets that they are forced to pay effects their grocery buying, forget about their “vacation” days. I weep for those poor officers who terrorize the “people in he communty they serve.” Thats my point exactly these pigs put extra financial burden on people, meanwhile their family members/friends enjoy same privileges as a cop.

  • guest

    Did all the cyclist who disobey all rules of the road receive their fair share of tickets as well?

  • MICOJONES

    If the math is correct, then the 94th wrote the most speeding tickets, not the 61st. I’m pretty sure the 94th precinct is in Brooklyn.

    • MicoJones

      Disregard…I misread the title. In any event, It doesn’t take much to get all the cop haters to comment on these kinds of articles. Cops in the 61 give more breaks than most other precincts. Fact is alot of drivers in Sheepshead Bay drive like a$$holes!

  • BrooklynBus

    I’d like to see this sign.

    “How Much Money You Should be Paying in Fines and Taxes? _________

    “How Much Money in Fines And Taxes Bloomberg Has Screwed You Out Of? ____________.

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