What happens when the police go on strike? Over the past two weeks, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has done its part to answer that question. Officers have been on a particular kind of strike called a slowdown: they come to work, but don’t do their job as quickly or fully as usual.

While police union officials have denied officers are working at a slower pace, arrests in all categories are down more than 50 percent. The decline in traffic violations and minor incidents, like public urination, has been especially pronounced: where arrests for major felonies have dropped by about 20 percent, summonses for low-level crimes and parking and moving violations have decreased by more than 90 percent.

According to a New York Times article this past week, “In Coney Island, the precinct covering that neighborhood did not record a single parking ticket, traffic summons or ticket for a low-level crime like public urination or drinking, the statistics showed.” This decline in arrests and summons has spilled over into the courtroom: