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NYPD lawyer says department needs to fix civil ticket process after Gothamist report
By
Ben Feuerherd
Published Sep 16, 2026
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John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
By
Ben Feuerherd
Published Sep 16, 2026
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The NYPD’s top lawyer said the department needs to fix how police officers issue civil summonses, following a Gothamist report that showed nearly half the department’s 98,000 civil quality-of-life tickets were tossed out last fiscal year.
Michael Gerber, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of legal matters, made the statement at a city council oversight hearing Wednesday.
“We need to fix that,” he said, responding to a city councilmember’s question about the 47% dismissal rate. “We’re not happy about that for obvious reasons.”
Gerber was responding to a question by Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who cited a Gothamist article about how hearing officers threw out nearly half the civil violations NYPD officers issued for things like open containers and urinating in public. The majority of the tickets were dismissed because they were “defective” and could not be served properly.
Councilmember Tiffany Caban and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also briefly mentioned the dismissal rate, with Williams saying it raises questions about the department's quality of life enforcement.
An example of a handwritten civil summons issued by an NYPD officer in Manhattan earlier this year.
OATH records
NYPD oversight groups like the Department of Investigation have said one key reason for the high number of dismissals is that NYPD officers still write 100% of their civil tickets by hand. Critics of the NYPD’s quality of life crackdown have said the high dismissal rate is further evidence that enforcing such violations is a waste of time and resources for the city and for New Yorkers forced to fight them.
After acknowledging the department’s frustration with the number of dismissals, Gerber largely chalked up the dismissals to technical errors and defended the department’s enforcement.
“They’re being dismissed not because they were improperly issued — the paperwork is not being done properly, it’s not being filled out properly, handwriting issues,” Gerber said.
He added that most of the tickets that were dismissed could have been issued as more serious criminal summonses — rather than a ticket for a civil violation — and said it shows officers are using discretion to issue a more minor penalty.
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new york city
nypd
public safety
Ben Feuerherd
Ben Feuerherd covers public safety and policing for WNYC and Gothamist. He previously covered federal courts for The New York Post and The Messenger. His work has also appeared in POLITICO, the Daily Beast and NBC New York. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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