The Wall.St Journal 21Feb2020

A9A| Friday, February 21, 2020 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

the NYPD is undertaking a

number of changes to increase

transparency and fairness in

its use of such evidence, Mr.

Shea said.

The NYPD will begin by

conducting an audit of the Lo-

cal DNA Index System, a data-

base of roughly 82,000 sam-

ples from crime scenes and

individuals maintained by the

Office of Chief Medical Exam-

iner.

Any sample that is more

than two years old and isn’t

linked to a continuing case or

conviction will be flagged for

removal, police officials said.

The department also will

streamline processes for peo-

ple seeking to have samples of

their DNA removed from the

index, officials said. Individu-

als acquitted in criminal cases

involving DNA may have their

samples removed from the in-

dex by providing proof of dis-

position. Previously, a court

order was required.

New limits will be placed on

the collection of samples from

juveniles, NYPD officials said,

so that investigators may only

collect DNA samples in cases

where they are being investi-

gated for felonies, sex crimes,

firearm crimes or hate crimes.

New rules for investigators

will ensure that when a sam-

ple is obtained by consent, a

parent or guardian would be

notified and can object to the

collection, officials said.

The consent form for the

collection of DNA samples also

will be updated to state that

individuals may refuse to pro-

vide samples and to specify

that the samples may be kept

in an index for future use.

DNA is becoming increas-

ingly common in criminal tri-

als, where juries have grown

to expect such evidence, said

Rachel Singer, chief of the fo-

rensic science unit in the

Brooklyn district attorney’s of-

fice. “It’s the ‘CSI’ effect,” she

said.

In 2019, the Local DNA In-

dex System yielded roughly

1,550 DNA matches linking

samples to individuals in active

criminal investigations, police

said. At the Brooklyn district

attorney’s office, about half of

New York Attorney General

Letitia James has demanded

$810 million from New York

City, accusing the city’s taxi

regulator of playing a role in

fraudulently inflating the

value of medallions.

In a formal legal claim sent

to City Comptroller Scott

Stringer on Thursday, Ms.

James said the city made hun-

dreds of millions of dollars

marketing and auctioning

thousands of medallions, while

helping to keep values artifi-

cially high. A medallion is a

metal shield that serves as the

city’s license to pick up street

hails across the city.

When medallion values

plunged to less than $200,

from a high of more than $

million several years ago,

many medallion owners filed

for bankruptcy. Many drivers

still struggle. There are about

13,500 such medallions in New

York City.

Freddi Goldstein, a spokes-

woman for Mayor Bill de Bla-

sio, said his administration

didn’t play a role in the medal-

lion crisis. Since Mr. de Blasio

took office in 2014 the city has

tried to help drivers and curb

the spread of ride-hailing

competitors such as Uber

Technologies Inc., she said.

“This crisis has been ours

to solve—working tirelessly to

clean up the carelessness and

greed of others,” Ms. Goldstein

said. “If the attorney general

wants to launch a frivolous in-

vestigation into the very ad-

ministration that has done

nothing but work to improve

the situation, this is what

she’ll find.”

Ms. James gave notice that

she would sue the city if it

doesn’t meet her demands

within 30 days. She said the

funds would pay for restitu-

tion and damages to medallion

owners.

Mr. Stringer said his office

would review the attorney

general’s claims.

Ms. James launched an in-

vestigation following a series

of articles in the New York

Times last year charting how

lenders, brokers and others in

the taxi industry profited from

the artificial inflation of me-

dallion values.

In the claim, the attorney

general said that from at least

2004, the city’s Taxi and Lim-

ousine Commission set an ar-

tificial floor for prices and al-

lowed brokers to inflate and

collude on cost.

At the same time, she said,

the regulator marketed medal-

lions as a solid investment

with returns better than the

stock market.

Between 2004 and 2014,

some medallion values more

than tripled, Ms. James said.

As early as 2011, she said, the

regulator knew values were

artificially high but didn’t

warn buyers.

The city made more money

than it should have on medal-

lion sales and transfers be-

cause of the artificially in-

flated prices, Ms. James said.

Earlier this week, an invest-

ment firm known for buying

up distressed assets purchased

thousands of medallions fol-

lowing the collapse of several

credit unions that invested

heavily in the licenses.

BYPAULBERGER

State AG

Accuses

City in

Taxi Crisis

NYC fraudulently

inflated the value of

medallions, says

Letitia James.

New York Attorney General

Letitia James

LAUREN CROTHERS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

the 490 matches made in 2019

resulted in indictments, Ms.

Singer said. DNA also helps in-

vestigators clear suspects from

crimes, she added.

But some law-enforcement

practices involving DNA, such

as the collection of samples

from suspects without their

consent and the collection of

masses of samples in investi-

gations, are troubling, said

New York state Sen. Brad

Hoylman, a Democrat who

represents parts of Manhattan.

He has sponsored a bill in

Albany that would prohibit lo-

cal agencies such as the NYPD

from maintaining DNA data-

bases, while still permitting

the use of DNA in investiga-

tions.

Terri Rosenblatt, supervis-

ing attorney of the DNA Unit

at the Legal Aid Society, New

York City’s largest criminal de-

fense group, said the NYPD’s

changes don’t go far enough to

enact meaningful reform.

“The changes are meaning-

less,” Ms. Rosenblatt said.

“The New York City Police De-

partment’s plan still violates

the law and continues genetic

stop-and-frisk.”

The New York City Council

will hold a hearing Tuesday in

Manhattan on the NYPD’s use

of DNA, where lawmakers and

police officials will discuss the

city’s database, said the coun-

cil’s Public Safety Committee

Chair Donovan Richards, a

Democrat from Queens.

“We want to hear a lot

more about their methods and

how they put people in” the

DNA database, Mr. Richards

said.

The New York Police De-
partment is updating its rules
for the collection and use of
DNA evidence, a critical tool
that has come under scrutiny
for its growing role in criminal
investigations and prosecu-
tions, Commissioner Dermot
Shea said.
The changes, which include
easier processes for the re-
moval of DNA samples from a
digital index and limits on the
collection of samples from juve-
niles, aim to build trust with
the community and are part of
a series of reforms, Mr. Shea
said in an interview Wednesday.
Mr. Shea’s move comes as
police departments around the
country seek to balance pri-
vacy and civil-rights concerns
as DNA takes on an increas-
ingly important role in investi-
gations and prosecutions.
“I think it’s incumbent upon
us to make sure that we’re be-
ing as fair as possible,” Mr.
Shea said at NYPD headquar-
ters. “Anytime you dig your
heels in and say, ‘It’s our way
or the highway,’ I think you
should pause and reflect a lit-
tle on what you’re doing.”
DNA evidence is used by
the NYPD in hundreds of cases
each year, police officials said.
One recent, high-profile exam-
ple is the killing of Barnard
College student Tessa Majors,
where police say DNA linked
Ms. Majors to at least one of
the suspects charged in her
death.
Partly in response to con-
cerns raised by New York law-
makers and defense lawyers,

BYBENCHAPMAN

NYPD Overhauls Rules for DNA Evidence

Officers took items from a Brooklyn residence in 2017. The force is updating its DNA rules.

THEODORE PARISIENNE

Mr. Nelson and his partner

Andrew Joblon said they were

negotiating a construction

loan for the $700 million de-

velopment. They want to at-

tract e-commerce sellers, food

distributors and other tenants.

While the Bronx Logistics

Center wouldn’t be the first

warehouse in the city to offer

rail service, it would be one of

the few with the amenity.

Railcars carry about 2% of

the city’s overall freight, the

EDC said.

About 5% of potential ten-

ants looking for space want it

to have direct rail service, ac-

cording to JLL, a real-estate

services firm that is advising

Turnbridge on the Bronx Lo-

gistics Center project.

Typically, companies look-

ing for direct freight-rail ser-

vice are those receiving raw

goods and products such as

food or beverages that are

heavy and would be less ex-

pensive to transport long dis-

tances by train than by truck,

real-estate consultants said.

But the types of companies

interested in warehouse ac-

cess to rail service are start-

ing to expand, the consultants

said. A truck-driver shortage

has added to rising freight

costs. The increased expenses

and shorter delivery-time re-

quirements are pushing com-

panies to consider shipping

more products by rail.

The number of train cars

transported by barge from

trains at New Jersey terminals

to Brooklyn rose 25% between

2017 and 2018, according to

the city’s EDC.

“Rail was used more for

raw materials and goods be-

fore the recession,” said

James Breeze, global head of

industrial logistics research

at real estate services firm

CBRE Group Inc. “Today it is

more diverse and more about

lower costs and distributing

rather than just moving

larger raw materials.”

Turnbridge’s 1.24 million

square-foot project is set to

rise on five parcels of land

adjacent to Oak Point Yard, a

rail yard that also services

the Hunts Point Cooperative

Market Inc. The first three

floors will have ramp access

and loading docks for 53-foot

trucks. Vans and smaller

trucks will be able to access

the fourth floor by ramps,

and the warehouse will have

1,400 parking spaces.

The project is one of about

six, modern, multistory ware-

houses in the city either un-

der construction or in the

planning stages. With little

land available in New York

City to build more distribu-

tion centers, the developers

are betting warehouse tenants

would be willing to pay a pre-

mium on rent to be close to

their customers and to save

on delivery costs from distri-

bution centers outside the

city.

“Being closer to the con-

sumer is the name of the

game,” said Rob Kossar, a vice

chairman at JLL. “Your rent is

higher but transportation

costs go down so significantly

that it offsets the higher

rental rate.”

GREATER NEW YORK

The developer of a four-
story warehouse in the South
Bronx plans to include a
freight-rail connection in the
project to address trucking
costs and traffic congestion
associated with the e-com-
merce boom.
Turnbridge Equities expects
to break ground this fall on
what would be the only multi-
story New York City distribu-
tion center designed with a
rail spur linking it to a rail
network run byCSXCorp.
At the Bronx Logistics Cen-
ter, the spur would allow
freight to enter the warehouse
grounds by train, whereas
most New York City ware-
houses rely entirely on truck
delivery.
The push for faster deliv-
ery, the rise in online shop-
ping—including food orders—
and the city’s population
growth have driven compa-
nies to seek distribution oper-
ations within the five bor-
oughs to be closer to their
customers.
Truck congestion and de-
lays resulted in $862 million
in lost economic activity for
the city in 2017, according to a
report by the New York City
Economic Development Corp.
That figure could rise to
$1.1 billion annually by 2045 if
no measures are taken to ad-
dress the issue, the EDC said.
The city’s economic-develop-
ment arm is pushing for more
investment in rail and mari-
time freight transportation.
“As trucks clog the road and
there’s more traffic, people are
going to look to logistics solu-
tions that can solve that prob-
lem,” said Ryan Nelson, a
Turnbridge managing princi-
pal. “And this is one of them.”

BYKEIKOMORRIS

Bronx Warehouse Plans Its Own Rail Link

A rendering of the Bronx Logistics Center, which would have its own rail spur. Turnbridge Equities expects to break ground this fall.

ARQUI

New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo suggested that the
Trump administration could
delay plans to implement a
congestion charge on vehicles
entering most of Manhattan
south of 60th Street.
Tensions between the ad-
ministration and New York
state regarding immigration
enforcement could prompt
federal officials to “hold hos-
tage” the required approval
for the toll system, the Demo-

cratic governor said Thursday

at an unrelated news confer-

ence. “I wouldn’t hold my

breath on congestion pricing,”

Mr. Cuomo said.

The White House referred

questions about the governor’s

statement to the Department

of Homeland Security, which

called Mr. Cuomo’s comments

“off-base.”

The state-controlled Metro-

politan Transportation Author-

ity had wanted to begin conges-

tion pricing as soon as Jan. 1,

2021, agency documents show.

The plan is on schedule,

MTA officials contend. But

New York state needs federal

approval to implement the

charge because many roads in

the planned congestion zone

received federal funding or

are considered part of the

federal highway system.

The Federal Highway Ad-

ministration can grant the

MTA permission to implement

tolls but must first conduct an

environmental review that

could take months or years,

depending upon how detailed

a study is undertaken.

New York City would be the

first municipality in the nation

to establish a congestion-pric-

ing zone.

A federal highways spokes-

man said that such a plan re-

quires careful review and that

the agency didn’t receive all of

the information it needed

from the MTA until January.

But Mr. Cuomo pointed to

disagreements with the Trump

administration over a state

law that allows undocumented

immigrants to apply for

driver’s licenses and prohibits

federal immigration officials

from accessing motor-vehicle

records without a court order.

The federal highways

spokesman said the two issues

are unrelated.

The MTA is relying on con-

gestion pricing to provide rev-

enues for $15 billion of big-

ticket projects to improve

subway, bus and commuter-

rail service during the next

five years.

An MTA spokeswoman said

Thursday that the authority

has held more than a dozen

meetings with federal officials,

responded to every request for

additional information and is

ready to act expeditiously on

the environmental review.

Federal inaction would re-

sult in continued congestion

and pollution in New York City

and a $15 billion hole in the

MTA’s spending plan, she said.

The MTA has been criti-

cized for being slow and se-

cretive in setting up the con-

gestion-pricing plan. The toll

program was enacted as part

of last year’s state budget. The

legislation required the MTA

to form a six-member panel to

set the levies and decide on

discounts and exemptions. But

the MTA still hasn’t set up the

panel and has said the group

won’t meet in public.

The panel is required to is-

sue its recommendations no

earlier than mid-November,

sparing state legislators a po-

tential headache in an election

year. Its recommendations

would be voted on by the

MTA’s board.

BYPAULBERGER
ANDJIMMYVIELKIND

Cuomo Cites Toll-Plan Hurdles

Tensions between the

Trump administration

and N.Y. might delay

the proposal

NY