Rogue drivers with “ghost” license plates are costing New York City $200 million a year, a new analysis says, fueled by a burgeoning online mini-industry selling “James Bond-level” gadgets.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who conducted the study, said illegal vehicles use illegible license plates to pass toll booths and NYPD speed and traffic light cameras as many as 100,000 times a month, avoiding fines and other penalties.
“It certainly has an impact on people’s behavior if they know their license plate is illegible,” Levine told the Post.
Ghost plate issues include driving without plates at all, scratching off plates or hiding them with tinted or reflective coverings, or using completely counterfeit plates.
An analysis by Levine’s office found that more than 5 percent of all vehicles that pass by DOT, MTA and Port Authority cameras each month are currently unreadable.
In addition to the inherent dangers of speeding through school zones and red lights, ghost numbers also come at a cost in terms of uncollected tickets and tolls, the Beep reports.
“We estimate it’s at least $200 million, probably more,” Levine said.
Growing concern about the rise in ghost numbers has prompted New York City officials to launch a series of crackdowns recently.
Last month, a joint NYPD/MTA operation led to the arrest of 200 drivers, including a repeat offender carrying a loaded handgun who was a suspect in a 2005 murder case.
Ironically, Levine said, the city’s proliferation of speed cameras, red light cameras and toll cameras has had the unintended side effect of encouraging dishonest drivers to deface, conceal or fake license plates to avoid tolls and tickets.
“You rarely see fake license plates before,” he said.
“You’re seeing James Bond-level technology here, where you press a button and the cover comes down,” Levine said.
In fact, such a license plate-hiding device was listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace on Friday, with a seller in New Jersey marketing it as a “disappearing license plate.”
According to the video posted, when the key fob is pressed, a cover comes down over the license plate like a garage door, completely obscuring the letters and numbers.
The Paper also found that reflective license plate covers that could thwart authorities were being openly sold on Facebook Marketplace for $60 each under names such as “anti-toll fraud plate covers.”
Other cheating options are more low-tech, such as the license plate of a Kia Sorento parked in a bus lane at Jamaica Avenue and 149th Street in Queens on Friday.
Most of the letters and numbers on the plate had been scraped away, making them nearly unreadable.
Luther Shibuea, 48, an Uber driver who took his 5-year-old son to Moore Homestead Playground in Elmhurst, Queens on Friday, said parents are worried about drivers with ghost license plates.
He said such drivers could evade detection by cameras in school zones, speeding and hitting people, including children, and never getting caught.
“The speeder said, ‘Bye-bye,'” Shibuea said, waving his hand as if saying goodbye to someone.
“So it goes beyond not paying fines.”
Tashi Tshering, 51, whose two sons were also at the playground, said the city needed to think about what to do about ghost number plates.
“Cameras alone won’t help,” Tsering said.
Levine, who is considering running for city comptroller, suggested the state attach radio frequency identification tags to registration stickers.
Such RFID tags can be read by radio receivers attached to cameras to verify that the number plate matches the registration and collect fines, he said.
Still, illegal actors could probably tamper with even those tags.
The analysis claims that artificial intelligence tools could also be used to match intercepted license plates with properly registered vehicles.
“We’re proposing that the cameras record not only the license plate but also the make and model of the vehicle,” Levine said.
Levine said vehicles with fake license plates should be removed when parked and the minimum fine for obstructing or counterfeiting license plates should be increased to at least $150 per violation.
Ultimately, he said, online marketplaces for ghost plates need to be shut down.
“There needs to be a tough crackdown on fake number plates and concealment devices online,” he said.
Last year, dozens of city council members called on U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to enact reforms to curb the sale of counterfeit paper license plates, which are sold in other states and are proliferating in the city.
