Police should seize reckless NYC drivers’ cars

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Gotham streets are more dangerous than they’ve been in years. As of June 30, 123 people had died in crashes, up from 105 in pre-pandemic 2019. The NYPD is rightly cracking down against the illegal dirt bikes and ATVs that have become a menace to pedestrians. But it should crack down, too, on drag-racing, speeding and illegal souped-up cars. 

In the late spring of 2020, New Yorkers grew accustomed to a new pandemic noise: the constant buzz of illegal dirt bikes, with many drivers going the wrong way or up on sidewalks. In July, a toddler was critically ­injured by a dirt-bike rider in Flushing Meadows Park. The alleged thrill rider, who fled, blamed the child when caught. 

In June, actress Lisa Banes was killed by a hit-and-run driver on some type of motorized two-wheel vehicle. And the drivers keep killing themselves: one dead in Brooklyn in July, one in September in Harlem. 

In response, the NYPD has taken hundreds of these illegal vehicles off the streets, 651 since late April. People who have invested thousands in these vehicles can’t get their contraband property back; most are destroyed. 

Good — but the NYPD should take the same aggressive approach to drag-racing and speeding cars. Pedestrians and cyclists still face the most risk from reckless and speeding drivers. Responsible drivers and their passengers, too, are in danger. 

It’s hard to drive up the West Side Highway or Henry Hudson Parkway without encountering a drag race, even during the day. In Bed-Stuy in May, a 52-year-old pedestrian died after being hit by a possible drag-racer; last June, two teens and a young boy killed themselves in this way in Brooklyn. 

Reckless drivers who have purposely removed their mufflers are everywhere, unnerving pedestrians and contributing to the city’s atmosphere of lawlessness. 

The city can tackle this scourge, too, by reviving a tactic that goes back to the Giuliani era: seizing cars. In 1999, the NYPD began seizing the cars of drunken drivers. It could do this because, as the city’s top lawyer, Michael Hess, said back then, “You can’t be driving drunk without an automobile, so the automobile is the instrumentality of the crime,” and the state Supreme Court agreed. 

Similarly, the city had long seized the cars of people using them to transport prostitutes or drugs. You can’t commit reckless endangerment by drag-racing or excessive speeding without a vehicle, either — so the car is the instrumentality of the crime. 

The NYPD should start charging dangerous drivers with criminal charges, and commensurately seizing their property. Seven years ago, Manhattan DA Cy Vance convicted Adam Tang of reckless endangerment and reckless driving after Tang filmed himself in a high-speed caper around Manhattan. Civil forfeiture of his BMW was part of a plea bargain he rejected before his trial conviction. 

Police don’t have to engage in chases to carry out these seizures. Cameras can compile video evidence of reckless driving. Police can use ­license plates to track a vehicle to its home and seize it while unattended. 

The city’s sheriff is already doing this, with cars with fake plates — cars disproportionately driven recklessly. Last month, the sheriff seized 43 such unattended vehicles in Brooklyn. 

Of course, any stepped-up police action will face criticism. One, there’s a disparate impact in who bears the brunt of enforcement — not a racial one, but a gender one. The vast majority of reckless drivers are young men. 

We can endlessly debate the root causes of why young women of all races are more responsible in general. But in the meantime, the boys shouldn’t be killing and injuring themselves and others. 

Two, seizing vehicles may harm an innocent breadwinner, whose boyfriend or son borrowed a car for daredevil antics. Giuliani faced this argument — and observed that you shouldn’t let someone use your car, a potentially lethal weapon, ­unless you really trust them. 

Third, a mundane issue: As one police source says, with the West Side tow pound now closed for real-estate redevelopment, there’s no place to park seized vehicles. Renting out-of-town storage space would pay for itself, though, in the sale of property used in a crime. 

None of this works if the city’s five DAs won’t acknowledge that willful bad behavior has consequences. “The pandemic made me do it” is no excuse. 

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor of City Journal. 

Twitter: @NicoleGelinas

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