Reuters is reporting that the drop in arrests in New York City since the police slowdown happened is costing not only the city but some others that you might not think about;ย traffic lawyers and bail bonds firms.
โWeโre seeing less phone calls, less emails, less faxes from people with tickets that are newly issued,โ said New York traffic lawyer Matthew Weiss. โIt started at the beginning of the year.โ Revenues for his New York City traffic ticket business โ including moving violations and criminal matters โ are down roughly 30 percent to 40 percent since the end of December.
Traffic lawyers typically represent motorists who are pulled over by police for alleged offenses such as speeding, texting and reckless driving. They may also fight parking tickets.
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โIโve definitely noticed a drop in calls,โ said lawyer Isaac Abraham. Abraham said the fall in business could, however, be an impact from the holidays and it was too early to tell if it was from the fewer reported arrests.
Some lawyers said they were seeing business as usual and any noticeable drop could be delayed as there can be a lag between the time a motorist gets a ticket and when they call a lawyer.
โNot everyone necessarily calls a lawyer the minute they get a ticket,โ said attorney Scott Feifer, who said he had not seen any tangible impact from the fall in arrests and court summons.
Bail bondsmen say business slow
The number of arrests across the city plunged to 2,401 from 5,448 in the week ending Sunday compared with the same period the previous year, with parking and driving-related tickets down more than 90 percent according to New York Police Department data.
Parking fines are a small but significant revenue source for the city. Revenues from parking violation fines for 2014 amounted to $542 million, according to data from New Yorkโs Office of Management and Budget.
That equates to around $10 million a week, still a fraction of the cityโs $75 billion budget.
If parking ticket revenues take a long-term knock, it could pressure a budget that has had a persistent, though shrinking, long-term deficit. New York Cityโs Comptrollerโs office said they did not have granular enough data to be able to assess the financial impact of the drop in arrests and summonses.
Bratton said the city may actually be saving money if summonses are not being written because the city is not paying overtime to officers to go to court to testify.
Alongside traffic attorneys, some bail bond firms said they were also seeing a drop in business.
โDefinitely, itโs been very slow โ a lot of attorneys are having issues as well,โ said Miguel Rodrigues, co-owner of David Jakab Bail Bonds situated in Manhattanโs Chinatown near New Yorkโs criminal court. โI would be concerned if it goes for a month.โ
Empire Bail Bonds, which has offices around New York including in Queens and Brooklyn, said business volume was down about 50 percent since Christmas.
โEmpire is very large and can withstand the bump โฆ but your average Mom and Pop shop canโt,โ said Empire Bail Bonds president Michelle Esquenazi.
(Reporting by Megan Davies; Additional reporting by Hilary Russ, Jonathan Allen and Samantha Sunne, editing by Ross Colvin)
