The NYPD is ordering its officers to curb the contentious practice of parking their cars on sidewalks around precinct stationhouses, in the wake of a critical report from the city’s watchdog agency, The Post has learned.
Known as “combat parking,” the long-standing tradition of parking officers’ personal cars perpendicular to the curb around the city’s 77 precincts was among the parking issues called into question by the city’s Department of Investigation earlier this month.
Now, the NYPD has ordered its officers to ensure that private and agency vehicles are at least trying to adhere to city rules, including not parking in front of fire hydrants, at bus stops, or in crosswalks, a high ranking police source said.
“They want to make sure that we’re being good neighbors,” the source said. “I mean, that’s how I look at it. Inspect the premises to make sure that we’re not blocking pedestrians from walking on the sidewalk, especially people that are handicapped.”
The problem with the order to rein in parking practices is that police who are actually working don’t have anywhere else to park, another law enforcement source said.
“They want these guys and gals in and out,” the source said. “So they drive it to work and when they drive into work where’s the parking? What do they want them to do?”
The edict to self-inspect came shortly after DOI released an April 4 report which found rules sometimes go out the window in the NYPD’s “Self-Enforcement Zones.”
The NYPD “has no written policies or procedures regarding self-enforcement zones, and the rate of enforcement of parking laws within those zones was significantly lower than outside of those zones,” the DOI wrote in its 44-page report.
The vehicles outside precincts are often left half on the sidewalk and half on the street, a technique officers claim is more efficient and makes the most of limited space.
Along with the combat parking, placard abuse has been a hot button issue for years, with city administrations vowing to curtail the laminated NYPD permits that give city employees a pass to park curbside almost anywhere — but are sometimes abused or entirely fabricated by imposters.
Another law enforcement source said the DOI was just kowtowing to cop critics.
“It’s ridiculous,” a source who works closely with the NYPD said. “They have nothing better to concern themselves with? It’s the police haters.”
“Parking around precincts and NYPD facilities is a persistent challenge due to our thriving, complex city and the limited space we all must share,” an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement. “But the NYPD strives each day to achieve a balance as we continue to work toward solutions.”