Nearly half of the 98,000 civil tickets NYPD officers issued over the last fiscal year for things like public urination and open container violations were thrown out by hearing officers, according to data reviewed by Gothamist.
In the year since the NYPD announced it would expandits quality of life enforcement initiative, officials at the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, known as OATH, dismissed roughly 46,000 civil tickets, or 47% of those issued, the data shows.
The vast majority were dismissed due to issues labeled “defective service” and “defective notice of violation.” Those terms can refer to a range of ticket problems, but officials with the city Department of Investigation, OATH and City Council all point to one issue in particular: handwritten tickets…