People drinking in public in NYC are getting blitzed with tickets

August 28, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CITYWIDE — IF YOU DRINK on the street or in a park in New York City, your odds of getting fined greatly increased since pre-COVID days, a data analysis by WNYC revealed. Public drinking has been illegal in New York City for decades, but while roughly 2,000 to 3,000 tickets per month were issued by NYPD in the warm months pre-pandemic and with little enforcement during the pandemic, police wrote about 7,000 tickets for public drinking just this past June. This is in line with Mayor Eric Adams’ focus on enforcing low-level crimes — not just public drinking but public urination, littering, noise complaints and jumping the turnstiles — according to WNYC reporters who analyzed the data.

While “lots of tickets” are being written along the beach in Coney Island, very few are being issued in Prospect Park or Central Park, reporters said.

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