Disclaimer

This page reflects one approach to submitting citizen air complaints, there are others.

Memorize DEP website

The Citizen’s Air Complaint Program website has a lot of useful information and is frequently updated.

Figure out a good setup

A dedicated phone with a privacy screen that is permanently set in Do Not Disturb is helpful. The paid version of Timestamp Camera Enterprise is recommended, as are Apple products. After taking videos, they can be copied to a computer or cloud drive and placed in numerically ordered folders. On Mac OS, videos are easily compressed using option-click, selecting Encode Selected Video Files, and proceeding with the default settings.

Learn about spreadsheets

The choice of whether to use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel is largely personal. They should both work with this guide. Recommended areas of familiarity include formulas (=, SUM…), column format (Automatic, Date, Time…), and the XLOOKUP function. Any documentation or tutorials offered by either platform are generally worth consulting.

Install the NICK plugin

Available for Firefox and for Chrome/Brave. This will allow you to automate parts of the complaint submit process as well as track which have been paid. Using the complaint submission feature requires the NICK Template and one must be logged into NYC Idling Complaints for the NICK plugin to work.

Maintain a personal spreadsheet

This can be an extension of the NICK Template with additional columns for fields like NOV or it can be another sheet on a separate tab.

Submit complaints

When filling out the NICK spreadsheet, company info should ideally be confirmed with the NY DOS, if not then with the US DOT. A PDF of this information should be included with each complaint. Past violations can also be looked up using NICK and pasted into the appropriate row of column X: “22 – Description.” Once an entire row is filled out, the contents of the leftmost column can be copied and pasted into the “Fill using summary field” after starting a “New Idling Complaint.” If all goes well, proceed. If there are any errors, check to make sure all fields in the spreadsheet are filled out properly. You will then be asked to upload videos and images related to your complaint. When they ask if you will be available to testify at a hearing, it’s fine to say “No.” Once the submission is confirmed, you will receive a confirmation email and can move on to the next one.

Check violations and request payments

This can be done via a data export from NICK’s “Export complaints” feature, which can be loaded into a tab of an existing spreadsheet. Aside from being easy to reference using functions like XLOOKUP, this is simple to refresh anytime by replacing with an updated export. A search for “paid in full” will show which violations have been paid, at which point payment can be requested using the instructions on the DEP website.