Trash Trucks Pulled Off Streets In NYPD Crackdown

NEW YORK — Cops are taking out the trash industry's trash. More than a dozen garbage trucks were towed off city streets last week in an NYPD crackdown on private trash haulers, police officials said Wednesday.

The citywide initiative towed 17 dangerous trucks that had safety violations like low tire pressure or malfunctioning brakes, the NYPD said. Police inspected 142 trucks, 132 of which were put out of service, said Chief of Department Terence Monahan.

Cops also issued more than 1,000 sumonses over the course of the operation, including 515 moving summonses and 555 criminal court summonses, officials said.

"Hopefully … we sent a message out to these companies that we will be out there and we will be conducting enforcements and we won’t tolerate any of their actions," Monahan said.

The enforcement effort took aim at the dangerous commercial waste industry, which police officials say has killed 20 people in the past three years. Police spot inspections before the crackdown caught trucks driving in the wrong direction and running red lights, the NYPD has said.

Cops' safety inspections check the trucks' lights, steering, tires and brakes and whether the driver is properly licensed, Det. Charles Rubenstrunk of the Citywide Traffic Task Force said in an NYPD video released Wednesday.

"When we do find these deficiencies, we are having them towed, so they are getting off the road once we find them," Officer Gene Garay said in the video. "So it’s not like we’re writing them a summons and they’re on their way."

The recent crackdown came amid debate about how to regulate the private trash industry, in which fatigued drivers face pressure from bosses to complete routes as quickly as possible, the commissioner of the city's Business Integrity Commission has said. A ProPublica investigation documented such conditions published earlier this year.

Private trash firms haul away garbage from businesses and debris from construction sites. Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration on Wednesday proposed splitting the city into 20 commercial waste zones served by three to five companies each.

Whether the proposal is implemented remains to be seen. But Monahan suggested companies with bad trucks shouldn't rest easy.

"Just because the initiative is over doesn’t mean the enforcement’s over," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Terence Monahan’s title. He is the chief of department, not the chief of patrol.

(Lead image: A weeklong NYPD crackdown issued more than 1,000 summonses and towed 17 trucks. Image/video courtesy of the NYPD)