NYPD Demolishes 92 Seized Dirtbikes

By Hamodia Staff

The New York Police Department demolished 92 seized dirt bikes, ATVs, and other illegal motorbikes on Tuesday, the first day of summer, and warned of a continuing effort to crack down on and seize the illegal bikes this summer.

The bikes are illegal to use on New York City streets, and the NYPD says they “generate numerous complaints from New York drivers and pedestrians imperiled by their menacing maneuvers, loud engines, speeding, racing up on sidewalks, and failing to signal. The dangers mount as large groups of individuals aboard these motorized bikes – which lack basic safety equipment – tend to gather and swarm through congested neighborhoods when the weather turns warmer.”

The NYPD has been seizing and crushing the seized bikes to deter their use. Through June 16, police seized seized 1,921 of these vehicles – an 88% increase compared with the 1,022 vehicles seized in the same period last year. There are currently 588 more ATVs, dirt bikes, and other such vehicles at the pound awaiting demolition.

Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell attended Tuesday’s demolition event at the Erie Basin Auto Pound in Red Hook, and announced a Summer 2022 Motorbikes Plan, which includes: developing information about where such vehicles are stored in New York City Housing Authority property, appointing NYPD Patrol Borough inspectors to map motorbike ride-outs, having the Patrol Services Bureau hosting weekly strategy sessions, utilizing Field Intelligence Officers to identify storage and meeting spots, deploying Neighborhood Coordination Officers to raise awareness, having Youth Coordination Officers confer with kids on the topic and analyzing 311 complaints in real time to track packs of riders 

The NYPD says the vehicles “are only destroyed after extensive efforts to determine legal ownership fails, and it is no longer necessary for the NYPD to hold them for investigative purposes,” and that “the motorbikes are destroyed, rather than resold or donated, in order to prevent them from being returned to New York City’s streets.”

“For years, these dirt bikes have zipped through the streets, not only pestering New Yorkers, but breaking laws and endangering lives,” Adams said. “But thanks to the community members who reported these illegal bikes, and the strong response by the NYPD, we are removing these illegal vehicles from the streets in record numbers. And today, we are not only crushing these bikes so they can never terrorize another New Yorker again, but we are we are laying out concrete actions to take even more illegal vehicles off our streets as summer begins.”

“The use of these vehicles puts all New Yorkers at risk – other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and also those operating the illegal bikes themselves,” said Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell. “It is the New Yorkers who live and work in our communities – and who must endure these hazards – who are telling us loud and clear: `Get these motorbikes out of our neighborhood.’”