NYPD has sharply curtailed arrests since fatal cop ambush

(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The New York Police Department is staging a virtual work stoppage, the New York Post says, citing sharp drops in actions on everything from crimes to misdemeanors and parking violations. Since the Dec. 20 fatal ambush of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, traffic tickets and summons for other minor violations have plummeted by 94 percent, and overall arrests last week were down 66 percent versus the same week in 2013, the Post says. Drug arrests dropped from 382 to 63, an 84 percent plummet.

Part of the decrease in enforcement is due to safety concerns, sources tell the Post, but there's also what the newspaper descries as an "undeclared slowdown in protest of [Mayor Bill] de Blasio's response to the non-indictment in the police chokehold death of Eric Garner." Later Tuesday, De Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton are meeting with the heads of the five police unions, which have strongly suggested that cops put their own safety before public safety, and even stage the kind of work slowdown New York is seeing now.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.