Nine Arrested Protesting Speed Camera Bill Failure, Police Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Nine protesters were arrested Thursday night for blocking traffic outside of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Midtown office, an NYPD spokesman said.

Protesters stood in Third Avenue near East 41st Street and unfurled a banner reading "children are going to die," before being taken into custody, police said. The protest was sparked by the state legislature's failure to extend New York City's speed camera program, which allows the city to use cameras to ticket speeding drivers near schools. Protesters arrested received summonses for disorderly conduct, police said.

The nine people arrested are members of the group Families for Safe Streets, and many have lost loved ones to speeding drivers, Streetsblog first reported. The group is calling on Cuomo to convene a special legislative session to pass an extension of the speed camera program, according to the report.

Without an extension, the city's ability to ticket drivers using cameras will end on July 25. The city has used cameras in 140 school zones since 2014, and the program has cut speeding during school hours by more than 63 percent and injuries by more than 14 percent, according to a city Department of Transportation report.

Most city officials support not only extending the program but also expanding it. The mostly Democratic state Assembly proposed a bill that would have linked an expansion of the program to routine legislation allowing local governments to continue charging certain taxes, City & State reported. But Republicans in the Senate reportedly resisted, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not meaningfully intervene despite saying he supports the measure.

Cuomo, who spent much of the last legislative session day doing interviews about the separation of immigrant children from their families, said he would call lawmakers back to Albany to address the issue sometime before the fall.

"I think it would be an atrocity and literally a public safety hazard if the Senate doesn't renew the cameras by the time the children start school in September," the Democratic governor told reporters Thursday. "I'll bring them back, I'm going to continue to lobby."

The inaction puts kids' lives in danger, city officials said. A vehicle with multiple traffic violations speeds through a school zone or runs a red light more than 1,100 times a day in the city, according to an analysis by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Photo courtesy City Councilman Brad Lander