Getting caught with an open container of alcohol wont land you in handcuffs if the City Council speaker gets her way.

Melissa Mark-Viverito says she's in negotiations with the mayor's office to de-criminalize some minor offenses, including riding a bike on the sidewalk, being in a park after dark, failing to obey a park sign and littering.

In these cases, officers would issue a court summons instead of an arrest.

Mark-Viverito said it could keep teenagers out of jail.

"When you're talking about nonviolent offenses, minor offenses, that's what we see in that," the speaker said. "We have a lot of young people that are interacting, being arrested and put in jail at times. Younger, it could be in terms of 16, 17, 18, even up to 20. But we are concerned about that interaction, which can produce negative results in the long-term."

The proposal goes against Police Commissioner Bill Bratton's broken-windows strategy. He believes the failure to go after minor offenses gives the perception of public disorder, which can lead to more serious crimes. It is a strategy he's practiced for a generation.

Staten Island Councilman Vincent Ignizio opposes the changes. He said the bottom line is that people shouldn't break the law.

"The message we want to send is, we want a civil society. We don't want people urinating on the floor in front of our families. We don't want people walking around in public drunkenness," Ignizio said. "There is societal and social ills that we want to fight against, and the way we do that is with the strongest penalties as possible."

John Jay College criminal justice professor Karin Martin said the proposal is worth a try. She said instead of criminal fines, there should be more community service.

"Not everybody has money, but everybody has time. How about have them do something like weed a public garden or devote their time in some other way that actually betters the community that they are a part of," Martin said.

The mayor's office released a statement, saying, "The Mayor has made a clear commitment to reforming the summons process and the Speaker's proposal is under review in consultation with [the] NYPD."

The NYPD tells NY1 it will have to take a close look at the proposal and how it would deal with repeat offenders.