People who have been getting big checks for reporting idling trucks in New York City stand to get even more money as a bill there seeks to expand citizen reporting to parking offenses.
New York City’s Citizens Air Complaint Program kicked off in 2019 and since then has paid citizens big bucks for reporting commercial trucks, buses and vans that violate the city’s three-minute idle law.
All that’s required is video footage of a commercial vehicle (diesel or gas only) that’s shown idling for more than three minutes. Citizen cops get 25% of the fines collected from NYC's Department of Environmental Protection.
Last year, 12,267 submitted videos resulted in checks totaling $724,000 for this quasi-law enforcement cell phone brigade, and that brigade may be growing as a bill seeks to expand the list of offenders to include parking offenses.
Bill 501-2022 proposes extending that 25% take on a fine to citizens who get photos or video of a vehicle “within a radial distance of 1,320 feet of a school building, entrance or exit in a manner that obstructs a bicycle lane, bus lane when bus lane restrictions are in effect, sidewalk, crosswalk or fire hydrant.”
[Related: Trucking experts talk emissions reduction, sustainability planning]
