New York authorities are cracking down on what they call “ghost cars,” or vehicles using altered or forged license plates to avoid paying tolls and tickets.
A multiagency effort to catch them on Monday resulted in 73 vehicles impounded, 282 summonses issued and eight arrests, Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and law enforcement officials announced Tuesday.
Officials said it was the first effort by a new state and city task force that will be enforcing license plate requirements.
Monday’s operation involved some 150 officers from different agencies using license plate reader technology, visual inspections and other methods to spot fake plates along three river crossings entering Manhattan: the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge linking three New York City boroughs, and the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel, which connect with New Jersey.
“Today the Ghostbusters have arrived,” Hochul, a Democrat, said at a news conference at the RFK Bridge. “We’re going after the ghost vehicles. The gig is up...We are sick and tired of people taking advantage and everybody else feels like a sucker because they’re paying the tolls like law abiding citizens."
The mayor pointed out that a variety of different vehicles had been impounded, from yellow cabs to high-end luxury cars.
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Toll dodging costs the region’s transit system an estimated $50 million annually that could be invested into modernizing subways and public buses, said Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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“That’s your money they’re taking,” he said. “That’s tax money.”
Police have seen a clear connection between the illegal vehicles and violent crime, Adams said. Vehicles bearing fraudulent or modified license plates -- or no tags at all -- are often unregistered, uninsured or stolen, he said. That makes it challenging to track down vehicles and their owners when they’re involved in hit-and-runs, robberies, shootings and other crimes.
"We are finding that they are participating in very violent and dangerous crimes. They leave the scenes of criminality. You don’t know who they are," said Adams. "Nothing is more disheartening to tax-paying New Yorkers who follow the rules...[than] watching those who break the rules and think they're going to do it openly."
Some criminals even carry multiple sets of plates and switch them out to avoid detection, according to the mayor.
“These 'ghost vehicles’ are a menace to our roadways,” Adams said. “We don’t know who they are. They disappear into the night.
To be sure, forging or altering license plates isn’t new, said New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban.
But the city saw an influx of them during the pandemic, with people purchasing fake plates online that appear as though they were issued by out-of-state dealerships.
Caban said violators also use spray paint, tape and other materials to obscure or alter license plate numbers and letters. Still others purchase devices that can be activated by a driver to cover the plate just as their vehicle enters a toll zone, rendering the plate unreadable by fare system technology.
The new task force stressing they are working together to spot ghost cars and no one is above the law — including police officers.
"We send our units out regularly to make sure that our officers plates are not covered, and any officer caught with a covered plate, they’ll be disciplined. That’s something we take seriously," said NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey. "We don’t come out here and enforce them here don’t enforce them at the precincts."
