In an apparent response to large anti-police protests and the shooting deaths of two patrolmen, New York City cops are making fewer arrests and writing fewer citations.

The steep drops are fantastic news in the eyes of local libertarians, who believe police should seldom hassle citizens over minor offenses.

“It is certainly a good thing when the government is not arresting citizens for so many minor matters which should be decriminalized,” says Mark Axinn, chairman of the Libertarian Party of New York.

Axinn says a minimalist approach to policing allows the New York City Police Department “to concentrate its limited resources on truly criminal activities such as attacks on persons and property.”



The numerical plunge in enforcement is profound, the New York Post reported Monday.

The department’s officers issued just 587 traffic citations in the week beginning Dec. 22, a 94 percent drop from the same period last year. Parking violations were down 92 percent to 1,241, and summonses for low-level offenses dropped 94 percent to 300.

Arrests were down 66 percent from 5,370 to 1,820, with drug arrests by the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau falling 84 percent from 382 to 63.

Some city police began grumbling that it would be best to take a lighter approach after a Staten Island grand jury decided Dec. 3 not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold-related death of Eric Garner, whom Pantaleo and other officers subdued for the alleged crime of selling untaxed cigarettes.



New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who ran for office promising to undo tough policing policies, sympathized with protesters, saying he would be concerned for his biracial son if he was stopped by police. His commentary enraged officers, many angrily blaming the mayor for contributing to anti-police sentiment.

On Dec. 20, officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot dead in their squad car in Brooklyn by a man claiming to be acting in retaliation for Garner's death, causing some police union officials to urge more cautious policing.

Axinn believes there’s likely to be a steady increase in arrests and citations when the Garner case fallout fades from memory, but he’s glad that fewer people in the meantime are being put in cuffs.

“Of course it’s great,” agrees Brian Waddell, chairman of the Manhattan Libertarian Party. “When people are free from needless and burdensome intrusions and prohibitions, the police necessarily do less work.”



Though the Post described the enforcement plunge as a “virtual work stoppage” by police, Waddell says other factors likely contributed to the dramatic drops, such as the reduced use of “stop-and-frisk” pat-downs (during which police seek weapons but often turn up drugs) and a softening of marijuana enforcement.

Not all libertarian-minded New Yorkers are pleased, however.



Photos: Country Protests Eric Garner Decision View All 43 Images

Well-known smokers' rights activist Audrey Silk, a police officer for 20 years before retiring in 2004, says though she disagrees with what she considers nanny-state policies – including the tobacco laws in play during Garner’s death – “when it comes to policing, having been a cop, the cop in me mostly overtakes libertarianism.”