A city councilman who spotted a traffic cop blow through stop signs while yakking on the phone confronted the officer – and got slapped with a $165 ticket, the irate lawmaker said.
Dan Halloran (R-Queens) wants his summons dismissed and is demanding a review of every ticket the Queens traffic agent has ever written.
“The traffic agents spend a lot of time ticketing in my community and yet they feel they’re above the law,” Halloran griped.
The councilman was on his way to his district office in Whitestone Monday when he says he saw Officer Daniel Chu zoom by, talking on a cell phone with his lights blazing.
“I know the traffic agents have no emergency they have to run to,” Halloran said. “It immediately set my radar off.”
He said he followed the car as it blasted through two stop signs while weaving in and out of traffic before illegally parking in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts, where the officer went to get coffee.
Halloran says he pulled over and began snapping pictures of the officer’s vehicle parked at the corner of Clintonville St. and 11th Ave.
“[Chu] comes walking out with his iced coffee in his hand,” Halloran said. “He then sees me taking pictures and starts yelling at me.”
Halloran said he told the surly officer that he was a city councilman.
“He said, ‘Oh yeah? You want to take pictures of me? I’m going to give you a ticket,'” Halloran recalled.
Chu then wrote Halloran a $165 ticket for blocking a crosswalk. The councilman denied he was blocking it, adding that his engine was running and the car door was open.
“It was baloney,” said Halloran, who’s calling for an investigation into Chu’s conduct.
“If he did this to a city councilman and lied about the facts … imagine what he does to average citizens,” Halloran said.
Chu could not be reached for comment.
NYPD officials said they are looking into the matter.
“At this point, the case is being investigated by chief of transportation’s investigations unit,” an NYPD spokesman said. “The traffic agent observed that vehicle parked in a pedestrian crosswalk, and a summons was issued for such violation.”
He noted that Halloran received a traffic summons in January for illegally parking in a school zone.
(Source: NY Daily News / YWN-HPO Desk)
5 Responses
He said he followed the car as it blasted through two stop signs while weaving in and out of traffic before illegally parking in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts, where the officer went to get coffee.
Dunkin Donuts lol which cop ever goes there. I mean it just MUST HAVE BEEN AN EMERGENCY if he went THERE. And then He said he followed the car as it blasted through two stop signs while weaving in and out of traffic before illegally parking in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts, where the officer went to get coffee. NO WAY I JUST CANT BELEIVE IT! Lol
Old story always happens
wait!!!
did this councilman also blow through two stop signs and weave in and out of traffic to follow him
Interesting that NYPD has to stoop to adding a prior traffic violation as part of this story. I guess that since the Councilman once illegally parked in a school zone his story is suspect.
“The traffic agents spend a lot of time ticketing in my community and yet they feel they’re above the law”. It’s not just your community. IT’S EVERY COMMUNITY!