NYC Loses $100M in Ticket Revenue Due to Unidentifiable License Plates

By Hamodia Staff

NEW YORK — New York City loses over $100 million in speeding-camera ticket revenue annually due to obscured or “ghost” license plates, according to an audit by city comptroller Brad Lander.

 “Speed cameras reduce speeding, prevent crashes, and save lives,” Lander said in a statement accompanying the audit. “Unfortunately, a small but rapidly growing number of drivers are illegally obscuring their license plates in order to speed without getting caught. These scofflaws are putting their neighbors’ lives and safety at risk – and cheating the City out of $100 million a year.”    

The Department of Transportation (DOT) speed camera program, run through prime contractor Verra, issues $50 tickets when a driver is caught driving more than 10 miles an hour above the speed limit by a speed camera located within one-quarter mile of a school. The speed-camera program was initially authorized by the state Legislature as a pilot in 2013, and at first only during school hours. As of August 2022, the Legislature authorized the city to operate speed cameras in 750 school speed ones, 24 hours a day. 

The average number of daily tickets for each fixed speeding camera site decreased from 123 in 2014 to fewer than 10 in 2022, “indicating that cameras may have helped to change behavior and reduce speeding,” according to Lander’s audit.

Reduced occurrences of ticketing may also be due to residents being familiar with locations of the cameras, and GPS apps such as Waze that alert drivers to the of speed cameras.

During the audit’s testing sample of January to June 2023, 1,076,182 incidents of speeding captured on camera, or 22%, were not processed due to a missing or temporary license plate, sometimes referred to as a “ghost plate,” (15.3%) or an obscured license plate (6.7%). The potential lost revenue from the violations for these six months was $54 million – suggesting that the city is losing over $100 million as a result of non-identifiable plates. 

While recent laws strengthened penalties against drivers who obscured license plates, including a fine increase (from $65 to $250), permission given to police to confiscate the plates, and a prohibition on the sale of items that conceal, distort, or obscure license plates, Lander argued that stronger enforcement is needed to effectively crack down on missing and fraudulent license plates.

Lander suggested increasing enforcement “at tolled bridges and sites associated with high numbers of complaints about ‘ghost cars’ to seize vehicles using fraudulent plates and recoup unpaid fines.” He also called on the City Council to pass a proposed bill “to increase fines for using and selling fraudulent plates and introduce legislation allowing citizens to report vehicles using obscured or fraudulent plates in exchange for a portion of the fine paid,” and asked that the State Legislature should pass legislation “allowing regulators to investigate and shut down car dealerships suspected of issuing fraudulent temporary plates and suspend the licenses of drivers who use them to evade fines and tolls.”