Metro

City Council plans to wipe out 700,000 warrants

Scofflaws who’ve ignored tickets for boozing in public, urinating in the streets and other quality-of-life offenses have no reason to behave now: City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is announcing legislation today to wipe out more than 700,000 outstanding warrants for the low-level misdeeds.

The free passes will also be handed out to people nailed for disorderly conduct, breaking park rules, idling a vehicle, creating unreasonable noise and littering.

Mark-Viverito is unveiling the measure, which grants amnesty for nearly half of the city’s 1.5 million outstanding warrants, in her State of the City speech.

“We must continue the quest for reform,” Mark-Viverito said in excerpts of her speech released Wednesday.

“Our support for the NYPD and our efforts to improve the criminal justice system are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they go hand in hand.”

Mark-Viverito successfully pushed for an increase in the number of police officers last year.

But she and fellow council members have also come under fire from critics who say that many of the legislators’ ideas would hamper cops’ ability to get criminals off the streets.

The city’s largest police union was quick to slam the new amnesty plan.

“Densely populated cities like ours require that everyone act in a civil manner, or our neighborhoods will become virtual cesspools,” said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

“Lack of enforcement of quality-of-life laws endangers the health and welfare of everyone and makes the city a less attractive place to live, work or visit.”

Councilman Steven Matteo (R-Staten Island) argued that there should still be “a cost to breaking the law.”

“I don’t understand the message we are sending by a wholesale dismissal of hundreds of thousands of outstanding warrants,” he said.

“People who have outstanding warrants can just as easily pay the fines or make arrangements with the courts or utilize various programs to have them forgiven. Yeah, it’s inconvenient — but it should be.”

Outstanding warrants for the following offenses would be tossed under the speaker’s proposal: drinking alcohol in public, disorderly conduct, violating parks rules, idling a motor vehicle, littering, public urination and excessive noise.

Mark-Viverito also has her supporters — both on the council and in law enforcement.

Councilman Andrew Cohen (D-Bronx) described her plan as “appropriate” because many of the nonviolent offenses would probably be impossible to prosecute.

“I don’t think it makes sense to have these lingering around in perpetuity,” said Cohen.

Last month, Mark-Viverito proposed a series of council bills that would decriminalize quality-of-life offenses, in part, she said, because blacks and Hispanics are arrested at higher rates than whites.