Mayor Adams And Governor Hochul Announce Removal of 73,000 Ghost Cars and Illegal Motorized Vehicles From New York City Streets as “Public Safety Week” Rolls on
Deputy Mayor Chauncey Parker, Public Safety: Good afternoon everyone. I’m Chauncey Parker, the deputy mayor for Public Safety. On behalf of Mayor Adams, we’re here today for an important announcement about the progress of the mayor and the governor’s multi-agency partnership to remove ghost cars, illegal two-wheel vehicles, and ATVs from the streets of New York City.
The mayor’s north star is always very, very clear and that is to keep people safe. His strategy is that we do that by partnerships across all agency and community lines. We do that with a strategic plan and we do that by relentlessly following up to track our progress. He’s done that from gun violence to retail theft and every other public safety challenge.
Ghost cars are an important part of the mayor’s vision because ghost cars, one, is people not paying their fair share and cheating and evading tolls and tickets. It’s also taking up parking spaces. But from a crime-fighting perspective, ghost cars are used by criminals to evade detection, to do robberies and other kinds of very serious crimes with these cars that cannot be traced. And it is now my honor to introduce the 110th mayor of the greatest city in the world, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, deputy mayor. We were together this morning at Gracie Mansion with the task force on shoplifting. I was with one DA this morning, DA Katz, and I’m happy to be here with an outstanding DA here in Staten Island, DA McMahon, and joined also by real partners in public safety. I hope Councilman Borelli is able to make it as well. I know he was planning on doing so. But Councilman David Carr and just an outstanding borough president, President Fossella, they really embrace how we believe that, not only is my north star, but it’s the north star of the city and every residence.
We must be safe. And you have to go to all of those areas where public safety is being challenged and nothing is more important than dealing with the ghost car issue. Many people think that these are harmless, victimless crimes or criminal actions, but they’re not. They play a major role in some of the crimes that we’re seeing taking place throughout our entire city. So I thank Deputy Mayor Parker and his team for just continuing the work that Deputy Mayor Banks started. And you just see a real continuation of our progress.
You know, our kids, our families in New York, deserve to be safe. These cars, as DM Parker indicated, not only are they used to circumvent, paying their fines and tolls, but they also are part of the hit and runs. They’re part of the robberies that we see. They’re part of the illegal pursuits that we see. Just very arrogantly attempting to believe that the law does not apply to them.
And earlier, the partnership with the Governor Hochul and state agencies, we’ve come together to really deal with this issue, pumping the brakes on ghost cars that are coming across our bridges and attempting to avoid the toll and carrying illegal items. And the numbers are impressive. Since taking office, we have removed over 73,000 illegal vehicles off our streets. 73,000. And when you think about that number, 20,000 of them are ghost cars, and over 53,000 are illegal mopeds, unregistered two-wheelers and three-wheelers, bikes and ATVs. We have focused on it, and it had gotten out of control because it was ignored for so long. And we refused to do so. We stated that this city would not be a city of chaos and a city of just people doing whatever they want, and we zeroed in on these vehicles.
But what is interesting, that these outlaws use fraudulent, defaced or non-existent license plates and other illegal vehicles to commit and evade accountability for serious crimes, including shootings, robberies and hit-and-runs, as I indicated, as well as just believing that tolls do not apply to them. And when that happens, it increases the impact of the cost of tolling on our bridges and our roadways, and everyday New Yorkers have to pick up that cost. That’s why this September, we announced a new ghost car task force between the Department of Sanitation and the NYPD to remove unregistered, uninsured and stolen vehicles.
We were tackling this problem with the governor and other agencies within the law enforcement community at our tolling booths and bridges, but the partnership with now Police Commissioner Tisch and former Deputy Mayor Banks, they stated, why are we ignoring those vehicles that are parked? We did an analysis and noticed that where we were having many of our shootings in the cities and crime patterns, these vehicles were being parked on our streets, and we zeroed in on them and stated that we will focus on the parked vehicles as well.
Targeting parked ghost cars has boosted enforcement and accountability, keeping New Yorkers safe from crime and freeing up parking spots for law-abiding drivers. Through this operation alone, nearly 5,000 parked ghost cars were removed in ten weeks. 5,000. That was a real indication of a level of comfortability that those who were using our streets to park these illegal cars, and we sent a clear and loud message and stated that it would not be tolerated or accepted.
And our interagency city task force launched earlier this year with the state has seized more than 3,000 additional ghost cars on bridges and tunnels. We’re not going to stand by while people break the law to fraud our city and endanger the public. And so again, I want to thank Police Commissioner Tisch, the NYPD, Acting Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lojan, and the Department of Sanitation for this collaboration and coordination, as well as all the other agencies that are involved.
This is why we are continuing to be the safest big city in America. I cannot say that enough, and we’re continuously seeing crime being driven down in this city. Index crime overall is down over 5.7 percent in November and over almost 2 percent overall for the year. Last month alone, we saw a decrease in murder, robberies, burglaries, and grand larcenies, as well as a drop in transit car crime and car theft. We’re just really continuing the great work who’s here with us now in a different capacity. Michael Kemper and what he did when he was running the Transit Police, we’re continuing the foundational good law enforcement work that we’re seeing.
Our efforts to combat ghost cars fulfills both of these missions, and New York City remains the safest big city because of the commitment and dedication to the officers involved. And I just want to take this to say a special thank you to those detectives that worked on the healthcare shooting, the number of hours they put in around the clock, dedicated to bringing this person to justice, off the streets of America and generals, but specifically off the streets of our city, and we look forward to prosecuting him to the full extent of the law.
Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, Mayor Adams. It’s now my honor to introduce the Police Commissioner of the greatest police department in the world, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Mayor Adams, Deputy Mayor Parker, and all of our state and local partners for being here today. Ghost plates and the vehicles that use them have been a plague on our city’s streets since the pandemic, and for too long they were tolerated as just a toll evading nuisance. But this administration finally said enough.
Last March, we started at the bridges and tunnels, pulling over ghost cars, entering the city. Then in September, we began targeting ghost cars as they sat parked in our neighborhoods, all for the same purpose, removing these unregistered, untraceable, and illegal vehicles from our streets. And as the mayor said, this year alone, we’ve seized more than 7,500 ghost cars. This includes more than 5,000 seizures in just three months by the joint NYPD-DSNY pilot program, a program that’s being renewed based on its significant success.
This is not just about defrauding the DMV or avoiding tolls or avoiding red light and speed cameras. More and more, these vehicles are being used in the commission of violent crimes, and we are seeing the same photocopied fake plates used on different vehicles as they flee crime scenes, speed through school zones, and cause collisions with no regard for other motorists, cyclists, or pedestrians. But the days of operating these illegal ghost cars with impunity are over.
We are listening to New Yorkers who are telling us loud and clear that they want these vehicles off of their streets and out of their neighborhoods. They want them towed, they want them seized, and they want them gone. I heard these pleas as a sanitation commissioner, I hear them now as police commissioner, and our interagency task forces are fully committed to this work.
The combined efforts of the NYPD, Sanitation, the MTA, the New York State Police, the New York City Sheriff’s Office, the Port Authority Police Department, the DMV, and others are sending a very clear message. If you drive a ghost car, scooter, or moped, you will be pulled over, and when necessary, you will be arrested and the vehicle impounded. Or, if you park a vehicle, a ghost vehicle, anywhere in our neighborhoods, we will remove it. Tens of thousands of these vehicles have already been seized over the past three years, and although we’ve reached a milestone for these seizures today, we are far from finished. Thank you very much.
Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, commissioner. It’s now my honor to introduce our great partner, former NYPD chief, and now chief of security officer for MTA, Mike Kemper.
Michael Kemper, Chief Security Officer, MTA: Thank you, deputy mayor. Good afternoon, and thank you for being here. I’m Michael Kemper, I’m the chief security officer for the MTA, and I’m happy to be joined today by so many of our law enforcement partners on this inter-agency task force.
You know, as we, near the end of 2024, we want to convey a simple message to anyone who still hasn’t gotten a word on toll evasion. Don’t do it. You will be identified, you will be stopped, and you will be subject to serious legal action, including fines, possible arrest, and having your vehicles impounded.
Every agency represented here today has the tools, the training, and the technology to catch toll evaders, and if you’re skeptical, just ask the 3,200 people whose cars have already been impounded, or the 700 people who have been arrested during one of our toll evasion operations just this year alone. Just ask them if we are taking this serious, and ask them if there are real strong consequences.
We will remain vigilant on toll evasion going into the new year. Make no mistake, our efforts and this inter-agency collaboration to combat this illegal behavior will continue. There will be zero tolerance for ghost cars and zero tolerance for criminals stealing millions from New Yorkers. The MTA’s bridges and tunnels from the Verrazzano to the RFK to the Battery to the Midtown Tunnels are gateways to New York City, and we will not allow toll scammers and criminals to drive untraceable cars across them and through them and bring mayhem into our city. This illegal conduct is not only unfair to law-abiding motorists, while they are following the law and paying their tolls, others have made the decision to circumvent it.
But as you are well aware of, and as is well documented, criminals are using quote-unquote untraceable ghost cars as a mode to and from crime scenes and acts of violence they participate in. This includes shootings, robberies, serious assaults, burglaries, and as was mentioned, hit-and-run collisions. This is unacceptable, and that is exactly why I’m standing here with Mayor Adams, the NYPD Police Commissioner, the Port Authority, the New York Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police, and all our partner agencies.
Again, the message should be very clear to anyone even thinking about evading tolls and operating a ghost car. Don’t. Because if you do, as I mentioned, you will be stopped and there will be serious consequences. Again, including fines, possible arrest, or having your vehicles impounded.
I want to thank you, Mr. Mayor Adams. I want to thank you, commissioner, Governor Hochul, and your teams. To everyone behind me, with us. I’d also like to recognize and thank the chairman and CEO of the MTA, Janno Lieber, for his guidance, his unwavering support, and his strong leadership, along with all members of this task force, including the men and women who are getting the job done. They’re the ones on the ground getting it done. For your commitment, and for your resources you’ve invested in making our roads and our city safe for everyone.
Before I conclude my remarks, let me recognize and thank MTA Bridges and Tunnel President Cathy Sheridan, Senior Vice President and Chief of Department Charlie Chavez, Chief Operating Officer Allison de Cerreño, Executive Vice President Eddie King, and TBTA Inspector Anthony Tramontano for their leadership roles in making this such a success. Thank you. I’ll turn it now back over to Deputy Mayor Parker.
Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, chief. It’s now my honor to introduce one of the key law enforcement pillars of the mayor’s multi-agency partnership across New York City to keep people safe, and that’s the district attorney of Richmond County, Michael McMahon.
District Attorney Michael McMahon, Richmond County: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Parker. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, our new police commissioner, Chief Kemper, to my colleagues, my great colleagues in government here on Staten Island, and all our partners.
Let me be very clear. If you have one of these ghost motorcycles or ghost cars, ghost vehicles, not only on Staten Island will you be stopped, arrested, the vehicle impounded, but to the full extent of the law, you will be prosecuted. Here on Staten Island, we abide by two principles. We want our criminal justice system to be fair, and we want individuals to be held accountable.
And for too long in the City of New York, people were not held accountable. They thought it was okay to have a phony registration, to scrape off the VIN number on their vehicle, or put a phony plate on their car, or put a sticker over part of the plate so that they could beat a toll, or so that they could use a car to commit a crime. And that was allowed, but the word is today it is not being allowed anymore in the City of New York, and it has not been for a while.
And I want to thank the mayor on behalf of the people of the City of New York, because yes, today it is about ghost cars. This morning at Gracie Mansion, there was a meeting about retail theft and what he, his administration, and his partners are doing. It’s been about illegal vape shops and so many other issues that affect the quality of life in the City of New York, but it’s not just the quality of life.
This is not just a quality of life issue, because last summer we stood here on Staten Island when homes were being invaded by individuals who were coming over from New Jersey to break into their homes to steal the cars, and they were coming over in ghost cars. They were using those cars to commit crimes here. And the people of Staten Island didn’t feel safe, but now they’ll start to feel safer because they’ll get the message that it’s not okay to have a ghost car or ghost vehicle in the City of New York.
And too often I drive around my neighborhood or other parts of the island and I see too many of my fellow Staten Islanders with half of the license plate covered over. Let me make sure they get the message okay as well. It’s not okay. You’re ripping off the system and you’re sending a wrong message to your fellow Staten Islanders. It’s time for us to say ghost cars, ghost vehicles are no longer okay, and if you get caught doing it, you’ll be arrested, you’ll be fined, your vehicle will be removed from you, seized, and you will be prosecuted. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, for sticking with this issue.
Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, D.A. McMahon. It’s my honor to introduce the Borough President for Richmond County, Vito Fossella.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Mayor Parker. I want to welcome to the heart of Staten Island here and welcome to the great 122 Precinct. We have the greatest police force in the entire world and I want to first publicly thank the men and women of the New York City Police Department for what they do every day to keep Staten Island, New York City, safe. So thank you.
I want to thank the mayor once again for bringing us together for this, I think, a noteworthy achievement. You know, they say that ghost cars are theoretically invisible, but they actually have a very visible impact on public safety in a very negative way. The one thing about stopping something is you prevent them from growing. So if ghost cars were allowed to grow and be used more often, not just in evasion of tolls, but crimes, we would see more of it. And that’s why it’s so important to send the signal that enough is enough. And I want to thank and commend Commissioner Tisch and congratulate her on her new appointment and thank the mayor because you couldn’t have chosen a better public servant. So commissioner, best of luck to you.
This is a team effort. As you can witness, you know, the different agencies, the MTA, the Port Authority, NYPD, Sanitation, that does a great job every day for us. And every team needs a captain and that captain is Mayor Adams. So thank you for being a great captain, mayor. Every time we have gone to you with a public safety initiative in particular, you’ve not only listened to us, you’ve been responsive. As Mike McMahon mentioned on illegal vape shops, you didn’t just listen, we had a significant crackdown citywide. Whenever there is an issue where people feel harmed, you have responded and we are grateful for that. And despite all your best efforts, I hope people in Albany are listening because you and your team need more help and more tools to make this city even safer.
The good news, folks, is the city is on its way back. Crime year over year is down in almost every major category. Like most things, the vast majority, 98, 99 percent of the people in the city are just good, honest, innocent, hardworking people. And that one, two percent, ruin it for everybody else, but one, two percent, we’re coming after you. We’re going to stop you and not allow you to harm or disrupt anybody’s life.
And lastly, on Staten Island, we’re so sensitive to when people evade tolls, to the millions of dollars, millions of dollars. Every time they don’t pay a toll, the people of Staten Island are forced to pay even more. So the more we stop that, the better it is for Staten Island drivers. I can’t thank you enough, mayor, for bringing us together. Keep up the good work. Appreciate it.
Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, borough president. Our next speaker is Councilmember David Carr.
City Councilmember David Carr: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Parker. I want to begin by welcoming our mayor back to the Mid-Island District. Always a pleasure to have you here, and I thank you for all of your efforts along with your other state and local partners to make this a priority.
The public safety threat posed by ghost cars and vehicles is clear. The importance of preventing toll and fare evasion is clear. But one of the other things that makes me so happy about the success of this effort is that ghost vehicles hurt our communities in another financial way. Most of these cars, many of these ghost vehicles, are not insured. And the uninsured vehicle count out there is one of the factors that goes into auto insurance companies deciding whether they need to raise premiums. And if you talk to people in Staten Island or southwest Brooklyn that I represent, one of the costs that’s been hitting them the hardest are the increases in auto insurance premiums.
And I believe that this effort, if it reaches a level of magnitude, could be successful, that maybe we take that level of risk away and maybe these ghost vehicles will no longer be punishing Staten Island and Brooklyn and other New Yorkers who drive cars, particularly in car-dependent communities like the ones that I represent. So I think that this is a monumental success on every level, and I appreciate the efforts of our mayor and governor and others to make this a reality. And I congratulate Commissioner Tisch on such a successful start to her tenure. For those of us who served with her when she was sanitation commissioner, it’s no surprise. And so I thank everyone for their wonderful efforts. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Parker: And finally, it’s my honor to introduce the minority leader of the New York City City Council, and that is Joseph Borelli.
City Councilmember Joseph Borelli: Look at this. The whole gang’s here on Staten Island. This is nice. Make sure you have a meal before you leave. We have some great restaurants.
Congratulations to Commissioner Tisch, someone who I’ve known for many, many years and who proved actually on day one and in week one that this is going to be a responsive police department, just like it has been in the past, but she’s not going to skip a beat on that. Nor is the mayor, who, when this issue was brought to him, he said, we have agencies that are equipped to act, and those agencies will act on this issue.
Now, I’m not a law enforcement officer. I am a legislator. So I want to talk a little bit about policy. In my long and storied career in the City Council, when I first started 10 years ago, the idea of e-bikes and scooters were sort of a new notion, a new idea. They weren’t being used as frequently. A couple of cities were starting with those Lime scooters and different rental companies.
Now we’re seeing them proliferated all over our city, both on the electric side and the moped side, the gas-powered side as well. It’s no coincidence that today the City Council is having a hearing on Priscilla’s Law, which would force the registration and licensing of many of these particular vehicles. And there’s some good news because so many organizations around the city actually have come out today in the hearing and announced their support for this program, because the truth is, we don’t mind these vehicles when they’re used properly. These are viable ways of getting from point A to point B, but people have to follow the rules. And the way we can enforce the rules better is if we have a way to register and track them and then, frankly, punish the people who are misbehaving.
That’s why today I just want to speak and give a quick pitch for Priscilla’s Law, as some of you might be covering it with other reporters at the hearing that’s going on today. But it is an important tool in the law enforcement arsenal once these things can be regulated and tracked. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you. Questions for the mayor and the team.
Question: So with congestion pricing about to go into effect, social media is pushing these products that obstruct license plates. What, if anything, is being done to go after these retailers, and what is the fine or the penalties for having an obstructed license plate?
Mayor Adams: I saw some of those obstructions and even the new methods of putting the correct numbers on over the license plates that you can’t pick up on cameras. And technology moves at a fast pace, and law enforcement must move at a faster pace. And we’re going to sit down with our lawmakers, some of them are here, Councilman Borelli and Carr and others, the public safety chair, and see what we need to do here in the city and what we could do in Albany. Because there is a level of creativity with obstructions and using even the pre-existing numbers to stop from detection.
So this is more than just stopping, as we all say, stopping the detection of paying fines, but it’s really stopping the detection when someone commits a criminal action. So it’s crucial that we get in front of this.
Question: Can you stop the sale of these? Or go after the sellers on Amazon or wherever they’re selling from?
Mayor Adams: And there’s several ways, like we’ve used before, when we wanted to prevent the sale of something in New York, we’re going to try to do the same here. But we’re going to need some of our national partners as well to get involved to stop this, because this will become a national problem if you can’t detect the vehicle that was used in the commission of a crime at the most, and if you can’t detect if someone is trying to evade their toll.
Question: Mr. Mayor, you talked about, or somebody said, rather, about the tools that you still need from the state to be able to do better on this unit. What are those tools, and how would cameras play a role?
Mayor Adams: Well, we’ve stated repeatedly, some of these vehicles are used in serious crimes. There’s a substantial number of crimes, and many of them are repeated offenders. And when you speak to our DA, and I’m sure DA McMahon, who’s now the president of the DAs of the state, I’m sure he’ll tell you how discovery laws, we need to re-examine discovery laws, and we need to re-examine those repeated offenders. And those are some tools that couldassist us greatly.
Question: Do you have a sense of how much revenue has been lost as a result of these ghost cars?
Mayor Adams: I don’t have that number. Does anyone have that number? Well, if you look at just as Commissioner Tisch stated, the 3,000 that we removed from tolling, and just getting a rough number of 3,000 multiplied by the cost of tolling, if that’s an indicator that would show you how much a daily impact this could be.
Question: With [inaudible] alluded to this,with congestion pricing, you’ve got 110 license plate readers around Manhattan now, much more of a motive for people who haven’t cheated the tolls before to do it now. I’m just wondering, doesn’t this exponentially increase the challenge for you guys?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, and that’s why Police CommissionerTisch and the former Deputy Mayor Banks, they knew we had to have a multifaceted approach. They not only looked at those who’s coming across the toll booth, but they said, let’s look at those who are parked on our streets. That was very important, because that’s a proactive way. We’re not just reacting to those who we stop. We have LPR license plate readers that are on vehicles, and we use them at different places in the city, but they were not picking up those that were parked, and now we’re aggressively going after those who are parked.
But yes, it’s going to make the job more challenging, and it’s going to incentivize people to find ways not to pay their toll. One of the items that I stated, that I alluded to, was the using the existing license plate numbers as visible to your eye, but that cameras can’t pick up. That’s a problem, and we have to be ahead of that technology, because this technology is moving at an extremely fast pace.
Question: The mayor alluded to the great work of your detectives. Commissioner, can you just talk about, there’s already been a seemingly overwhelming amount of evidence that’s been recovered in the CEO killing, whether it’s fingerprints, or also the idea that he left behind either a notebook or manifesto. Just generally, if you can allude to that.
Mayor Adams: Yeah, and the commissioner wants to do that. We were just talking as we were moving forward, and so she’ll do that. But in no way should we take this as a belief that it opens the door to a whole round of off-topics. Okay?
Police Commissioner Tisch: So just a very brief update on the investigation. First, we got the gun in question back from Pennsylvania. It’s now at the NYPD crime lab. We were able to match that gun to the three shell casings that we found in Midtown at the scene of the homicide. We were also able, in our crime lab, to match the person of interest’s fingerprints with fingerprints that we found on both the water bottle and the Kind bar near the scene of the homicide in Midtown.
December 11, 2024 New York City Hall Manhattan NYC
Sources: NYC City Hall , https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/914-24/mayor-adams-governor-hochul-removal-73-000-ghost-cars-illegal-motorized#/0
https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/915-24/transcript-mayor-adams-governor-hochul-removal-73-000-ghost-cars-illegal
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