NEW YORK (AP) — New York authorities are cracking down on what they name “ghost automobiles,” or automobiles utilizing altered or solid license plates to keep away from paying tolls and tickets.
A multiagency effort to catch them on Monday resulted in 73 automobiles impounded, 282 summonses issued and eight arrests, Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams and legislation enforcement officers introduced Tuesday.
Officers stated it was the primary effort by a brand new state and metropolis job pressure that shall be imposing license plate necessities.
Monday’s operation concerned some 150 officers utilizing license plate reader expertise, visible inspections and different strategies to identify pretend plates alongside three river crossings getting into Manhattan: the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge linking three New York Metropolis boroughs, and the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel, which join with New Jersey.
“At present the Ghostbusters have arrived,” Hochul, a Democrat, stated at a information convention on the RFK Bridge. “We’re going after the ghost automobiles. The gig is up.”
Toll dodging prices the area’s transit system an estimated $50 million yearly that could possibly be invested into modernizing subways and public buses, stated Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“That’s your cash they’re taking,” he stated. “That’s tax cash.”
Police have seen a transparent connection between the unlawful automobiles and violent crime, Adams stated. Autos bearing fraudulent or modified license plates — or no tags in any respect — are sometimes unregistered, uninsured or stolen, he stated. That makes it difficult to trace down automobiles and their house owners after they’re concerned in hit-and-runs, robberies, shootings and different crimes.
Some criminals even carry a number of units of plates and change them out to keep away from detection, in line with the mayor.
“These ‘ghost automobiles’ are a menace to our roadways,” Adams stated. “We don’t know who they’re. They disappear into the night time.”
To make certain, forging or altering license plates isn’t new, stated New York Police Division Commissioner Edward Caban.
However the metropolis noticed an inflow of them in the course of the pandemic, with folks buying pretend plates on-line that seem as if they had been issued by out-of-state dealerships.
Caban stated violators additionally use spray paint, tape and different supplies to obscure or alter license plate numbers and letters. Nonetheless others buy units that may be activated by a driver to cowl the plate simply as their car enters a toll zone, rendering the plate unreadable by fare system expertise.
