The NYPD must be forced to stop ticketing pedestrians who cross against traffic signals because cops are currently "unfairly targeting Black and Hispanic individuals," says a Brooklyn Council member who wants to end enforcement of so-called "jaywalking."

Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, whose bill to decriminalize the practice will get its first hearing on Tuesday before the transportation committee, said the city's own statistics show that the NYPD is unjustly and selectively enforcing the "crime."

In 2023, of the 463 summonses written for crossing a street against a signal, 92 percent, were written to Blacks or Latinos. In the first three months of 2024, according to new numbers crunched by Streetsblog, 96.5 percent of the 227 of the tickets where the race of the perpetrator was known were handed to Blacks or Latinos.

"The recent statistics for jaywalking tickets from January to March 2024 paint a troubling picture of racial disparities," Narcisse told Streetsblog in a statement. "This makes it abundantly clear that the current enforcement of jaywalking laws disproportionately affects communities of color. Jaywalking should not be a criminal matter that disproportionately impacts certain groups based on race or ethnicity. [MORE]