Last Wednesday, an NYPD squad car struck a cyclist riding eastbound in the two-way protected bike lane on Schermerhorn Street in downtown Brooklyn. The rider, Andi Khoo-Miller, says he had the green light when Officer Michael McGinn turned right onto Hoyt Street and clipped him with the front of the cruiser. Khoo-Miller was taken to a nearby hospital with back and leg pain and missed a day of work.
Video of the June 10 collision, along with a police report, indicates that McGinn did not come to a complete stop or signal before turning, even though the cyclist had the right of way, according to Streetsblog New York City. The footage appears to show the squad car’s front bumper striking Khoo-Miller inside the clearly marked bike lane, and the report notes that the officer’s lights and siren were not activated.
What the video shows and the scene
"If I was going a full 15 miles per hour, it could have been so, so much worse," Khoo-Miller told Streetsblog New York City. That account also reports that, while Khoo-Miller was in pain on the ground, McGinn repeatedly asked him for identification and a lieutenant later arrived on scene. Khoo-Miller described the officers’ responses as indifferent and frustrating.
Design, placards and illegal parking
The block was redesigned in 2022 as a one-way street with a 10-foot, two-way protected bike lane meant to calm traffic and connect cyclists to the East River bridges, according to NYC DOT. But enforcement has lagged behind the fresh paint. A city council survey and local reporting found roughly 457 illegally parked vehicles on an average weekday across Downtown Brooklyn, many with city placards on the dash, a pattern that advocates say routinely shoves riders out of supposedly protected lanes, as covered by CBS New York.
Cost to the city
When city vehicles crash, the bill often lands on taxpayers. In fiscal year 2023, settlements for motor-vehicle claims totaled about $173.7 million, with NYPD-related tort cases making up a substantial share of those payouts, according to the City Comptroller. Advocates frequently point to those numbers when they call for tighter fleet controls and tougher enforcement to head off future crashes.
Discipline and legal options
NYPD rules require officers to follow traffic laws except during true emergencies, and the department’s discipline system allows for "penalty days" such as docking vacation time in certain cases. The NYPD discipline matrix sets standard ranges for penalties, with relatively modest command discipline available for procedural violations, while civil claims from crashes are processed through the Comptroller’s office.
What to watch
Cyclists and safe-streets advocates say they are watching to see whether the NYPD disciplines McGinn and whether city attorneys move toward settlement talks with Khoo-Miller. Local officials, meanwhile, are pushing for fixes that go beyond roadway design, including tighter limits on placards, more consistent enforcement and physical curb barriers to keep drivers out of bike lanes. Neighborhood coverage from outlets such as BK Reader has chronicled the ongoing tug-of-war over how, and whether, those protections are actually delivered on the street.
