Since a program was introduced five years ago to allow concerned New Yorkers to report idling vehicles in exchange for a cash reward, the response from participants has been overwhelming. Idling violations have skyrocketed from 26 in 2018 to over 80,000 in 2023, with the greatest concentration occurring in Midtown.

Now the Department of Environmental Protection is unable to keep up with the idling reports, despite efforts to increase manpower and adopt automation. In response, City Council, in consultation with the DEP, has introduced a new bill to stem the flood of complaints and stamp out abuse of the program. But opponents believe the bill will essentially muzzle civilian participation in fighting air pollution.

The Citizens Air Complaint Program’s financial incentive has been a big draw, spawning what one trucking association calls a “profitable cottage industry.” After submitting video evidence of a vehicle idling beyond three minutes (one minute if it’s next to a school), a participant receives a 25% cut if the violator is fined – typically $87.50 per ticket.

And the bulk of the rewards seem concentrated in the hands of a dedicated few. A mid-2021 analysis found that 85% of all complaints had been filed by just 20 individuals, with the most prolific participants chalking up six figures in earnings a year.

“People seem to be resentful because the citizens make money,” said Christine Berthet, president of CHEKPEDS, a pedestrian safety nonprofit in Midtown West. “The program is working exactly as expected. Until it was put in place, we couldn’t do anything about the buses in our neighborhood. There is much, much less idling now.”

Bryce Stack, a Chelsea resident who works for the federal government, records around 10 violations a day.

“Some companies like UPS and FedEx have stopped idling,” he said. “You now see trucks double-parked or unloading with their engines off. And it’s honestly a miracle. It used to be that no one cared.”

While the city has collected over $50 million in fines – from companies like Amazon, Verizon, and Con Edison – none of that goes directly to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Intro 941, the new bill led by District 24 Council Member James Gennaro, proposes numerous changes to the complaint program. Among them: violations must be reported within 5 days (down from 90), rewards are halved to 12.5%, and participants who flout a code of conduct may be barred for life.

At a public hearing in September, Rohit Aggarwala, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said the 5-day limit for complainants is meant to speed up the review process. But critics have pointed out a double standard, since the bill extends the time limit for the agency to issue idling tickets from 45 days to 90.

Both Gennaro and the DEP did not respond to requests for comment.

City officials aren’t the only critics of the program. Members of the trucking industry said they are notified of violations up to 12 months after the fact, far exceeding the 45-day time frame. Some said they have waited up to another 12 months for their scheduled hearings.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Christopher Gawarecki, a customer compliance manager at Hub Truck, which offers long-term vehicle leases. “There are huge delays. Sometimes our customer is no longer in business when a ticket is issued.”

Gawarecki spends 8 to 10 hours a week handling these violations and wishes the overall process could be smoother, yet he has nothing against companies being flagged. “We’re not in favor of idling. Nobody condones that,” he said. “It’s a waste of fuel.”

Although complainants have been accused of trying to make a quick buck, they say the procedure is onerous and payments take a long time to materialize. Many participants are longtime advocates, some have lost loved ones to respiratory disease, and others are simply concerned about the health of their children or students.

Journalist and photographer Rafil Kroll-Zaidi is one of five individuals accused by the Department of Environmental Protection of making fraudulent submissions. So far, his case and two others have been recognized as honest mistakes and consequently dismissed.

“These summonses, if I may be plain, were meant to chill participation and create pretext for this bill’s speech code,” he said at the September hearing. In a piece for New York magazine, he wrote, “It’s less work to go find an extra idler than to fake a submission.”

At the hearing, Aggarwala said the program isn’t serving the most vulnerable communities known as Environmental Justice neighborhoods. According to city data, areas like Highbridge and Hunts Point in the Bronx have the highest rates of adult respiratory hospitalizations due to particulate matter, at over 25 per 100,000 residents.

“Because DEP’s air inspectors now spend so much time processing citizen complaints, which are mostly in Manhattan, an unintentional impact of this program has been to shift DEP’s own enforcement out of many EJ neighborhoods,” he said.

To civilian enforcers, scaling the program up, not down, is the answer. Seasoned participants have started mentoring newcomers in the Bronx, training them to take the cause of clean air into their own hands.

“New York City is probably the only city in the country where truck drivers turn their engines off when they’re parked, and it’s because the law is enforced,” said Stack, the Chelsea participant.

“We want to extend this to the outer boroughs, and the way to do that is to keep the program going.”