The Gulf Between NYPD’s Street Safety Message and Police Behavior

It’s day two of NYPD’s bike enforcement blitz, and for all its professed good intentions, image-wise the department isn’t doing itself any favors.

There is a gulf between NYPD messaging, improved as it is, and how police officers conduct themselves with respect to traffic laws. The above illustration from Andrew Yackira, a parody of the “Operation Safe Cycle” pamphlet, pretty much says it all. At the same time that NYPD says it will help keep bike lanes clear while issuing tickets to people on bikes according to the letter of the law, police themselves are constantly placing obstacles in the way of cyclists — vehicle-sized obstacles with big blue letters that read “NYPD” on them.

We’ve lost count of the number of “cops in bike lanes” photos we’ve seen since yesterday morning, but Gothamist posted a sizable collection, apparently featuring Commissioner Bratton himself, practically standing on top of a thermoplast cyclist as he enters his chauffeur-driven SUV.

Of course, this is symptomatic of a bigger problem: While top police commanders are saying the right things and some precincts are getting serious about traffic safety, it’s still incredibly common to encounter rank-and-file officers who don’t think it’s their job to make streets safer. It will take a lot of effort to change NYPD’s enormous bureaucracy and workforce, and recently, Bratton hasn’t shown the same commitment to the task that he did at the beginning of the year. If NYPD is serious about eliminating traffic deaths, the department’s words and actions need to sync up.

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