Derelict and abandoned cars are certainly a recurring eyesore and danger for communities, with complaints that sanitation and police don’t do enough to help.
The Amsterdam News dove into the towing data across the boroughs to see how they have been impacted by this chronic issue.The responsibility for towing technically falls under the Department of Sanitation and the New York City Police Department. The split means that there’s a bit of a determining process for what qualifies as a derelict, abandoned, or ghost car.
A car with a plate versus no plate also determines who picks up the car. If vehicles aren’t specifically derelict with no plates, they are tagged for removal by the NYPD. In the case of ghost cars, if someone is observed with a fake or counterfeit plate, then it’s a misdemeanor. If someone has a fake plate and is parked, said Royster, the city can tow that vehicle and administer fines. If local precincts think a car is stolen then it goes to the Rotational Tow Program.
Jeremy J. Blum, from the department of Computer Science and Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University, studied New York City’s sanitation and police data in his research on “Equity Issues Arising from Impound Lot Location and the Likelihood of Obstructing Vehicle Tows.” Blum’s maps of towing rates for obstructing and derelict vehicles show that the hotspots for towing are clustered around the city tow pounds.
Brooklyn Councilmember Charles Barron in East New York said that community members often complain about parking and abandoned cars. Barron said towing and parking in the neighborhood is a historical complaint. In response to the inequity claims, DSNY’s press office said that because vehicles that fit their criteria to tow are “disposed of” there would “likely be no relationship between the location of our DVOs and the locations of tow pounds.” There are likely separate and distinct differences in numbers because of the jurisdiction issue, said DSNY.
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