By: Adam H. Rosenblum Esq.  Date Pulished: 10/18/19

Nobody wants a cell phone or texting ticket in New York State. The hefty fine and five-point penalty associated with VTL 1225 (c) and 1225 (d) is intended to make drivers leery of getting one. The best way to avoid one is to either purchase a hands-free headset (for phone calls) or pull over to the side of the road to handle a call or text. Another option is to be mindful of when and where police are most likely to ticket a driver for using a cell phone.

 The counties that give out the greatest amount of cell phone tickets are predominately downstate. Four of the five boroughs of NYC individually gave out the most cell phone tickets, with Brooklyn top among them by a wide margin—its 45,583 cell phone and texting tickets was 30% greater than the next highest county, Queens. Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties also ranked high, along with Westchester. Among upstate counties, only Erie and Albany made the top 10 list for number of cell phone and texting tickets.

Even when taking the size of the population into account, New York City is still one of the worst places to talk on the phone or text while driving. However, several other upstate counties come into view for giving out a large amount of cell phone and texting tickets per capita. Schenectady tops the list, with 40.99 cell phone and texting tickets per 1,000 residents in 2017. This is almost double the No. 2 county, Manhattan, which handed out 20.87 tickets per 1,000 residents.

 However, Nassau and Suffolk counties drop to the bottom half of the list with 5.52 and 6.68 cell phone and texting tickets per 1,000 residents respectively.

When looking at the proportion of overall traffic tickets that are for cell phone and texting violations, once again New York City seems to be the place to avoid. All five boroughs took the top five spots. The 45,583 cell phone and texting tickets written in Brooklyn in 2017 made up 14.93% of tickets written by police in that county. Queens had the next greatest proportion, with 13.39% of all tickets being for cell phone or texting use last year.

 NY Counties with the Highest Conviction Rates

By now the message should be clear: New York City is the worst place in the state to commit a cell phone or texting violation. This is absolutely true when taking conviction rates into account. In 2017, all five boroughs had conviction rates of more than 91% for cell phone and texting tickets in their respective jurisdictions. Of course, part of the reason for that is NYC does not have individual traffic courts, and instead uses the Traffic Violations Bureau (which is part of the DMV), which does not allow for plea bargains. As such, drivers who challenge their tickets either win a dismissal/acquittal or are convicted—no reductions or negotiations.

 Drivers who want to are confident in their ability to negotiate their ticket down to a lesser charge (or, better, who have a great attorney to do it for them) can drive with confidence in Erie County, which allowed drivers to plea down nearly 85% of cell phone and texting tickets written in 2017. Only 6.84% of drivers in Erie were convicted on the same charge issued by police that year. Nearby Genesee County had a similarly high plea bargain rate (80.22%) with an even lower conviction rate (5.01%). That means drivers in Genesee actually have a better chance of winning a dismissal or being acquitted of cell phone tickets.

Of course, even a plea bargain or reduction usually means paying a fine and can sometimes mean getting points too (albeit likely less than the five points associated with a cell phone ticket). The only way to avoid any kind of points or fine completely is to have one’s ticket dismissed or be acquitted by a judge. An average of just 8.58% of all NY cell phone and texting tickets were dismissed or acquitted in 2017, and the majority of counties had dismissal/acquittal rates in the single digits.

 However, a handful had rates much higher than that. For example, Orleans County dismissed or acquitted drivers of 65.43% of all cell phone and texting charges in 2017. Livingston was not far behind, with drivers getting off Scot free in 47.32% of cases.

Cell Phone and Texting Tickets on the Decline?

 While cell phone use has become increasingly ubiquitous over the past 10 years, tickets for cell phone violations in New York have declined over the same time period. In 2017, police wrote 104,684 tickets for VTL 1225 (c). This is a 69% decline over 2009, in which 342,609 such tickets were issued.

At the same time, the proportion of overall NYS traffic tickets that are for cell phone use has declined as well, going from 8.4% of tickets to just 2.8%. Does that mean cell phone tickets will soon become a rarity? It’s possible, especially since tickets for texting while driving are on the rise. The number of texting tickets issued to NYS drivers surpassed cell phone tickets for the first time in 2017. However, the total number of cell phone and texting tickets are still declining overall, and the two together still represented just 5.8% of all tickets handed out statewide last year. To learn about other traffic ticket and traffic accident trends in New York, visit our data pages.