RAJKUMAR’S COMPREHENSIVE BILL PROHIBITS VEHICLES WITH PAPER LICENSE PLATES, ALLOWS BOOTING AND TOWING OF GHOST CARS, AND PROVIDES ENFORCEMENT BY VIN
Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar has introduced the Ghostbuster Act, a comprehensive set of reforms to end the proliferation of “ghost cars”—motor vehicles with obscured, missing, or counterfeit license plates that render them untraceable. Ghost cars are the vehicles of choice for those wishing to commit crimes. They also cost our State millions in lost revenue because they cannot be traced by traffic enforcement cameras or tolling systems. The Assemblywoman’s bill empowers law enforcement to quickly take these vehicles out of commission and off our streets.
Assemblywoman Rajkumar said, “I authored the Ghostbuster Act to put the brakes on the thousands of ghost cars in New York City. There is a clear connection between these illegal vehicles and violent crime. They are involved in hit and runs, robberies, and shootings. They also cost us hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. My bill provides the tools so that the NYPD can take all ghost cars out of commission. Together, we will be the exorcist that banishes the ghost cars haunting New York City.”
She added, “When I pass the Ghostbuster Act, if there’s something strange in the neighborhood about a vehicle’s license plate, who ya gonna call? The police, who will immediately take the vehicle out of commission.”
The issue of ghost cars became acute in 2020, when pandemic precautions prompted many states to issue temporary paper license plates. Before long, people were selling counterfeit paper plates, allowing the owners to forgo insurance and evade tolls and traffic enforcement cameras. Ghost cars have become popular vehicles for committing crimes, and to disguise stolen vehicles or ones not safe to operate. Since the pandemic, there have been over 20,000 complaints to 311 about counterfeit paper plates. Ghost plates are also a drain on funding for transportation, costing us an estimated $200 million per year in foregone toll revenue.
The Ghostbuster Act continues Assemblywoman Rajkumar’s commitment to addressing the biggest quality of life issues facing New Yorkers. This year she passed the SMOKEOUT Act that has empowered the City to already close over 1,200 illegal smoke shops. She also authored Priscilla’s Law, a bill that will crack down on reckless e-bikes by requiring them to have license plates, registration, inspection, and insurance.
The Ghostbuster Act creates a comprehensive set of tools for law enforcement to end the ghost car epidemic. It authorizes law enforcement to boot or tow all vehicles with fake plates. To crack down on the proliferation of counterfeit out-of-state temporary paper plates, the Ghostbuster Act ends all recognition of out-of-state paper plates, and establishes that such a plate is presumptive evidence of being fake. People needing a legitimate temporary plate to transport a vehicle from another state could receive one from the New York State DMV. The bill also adds teeth to the existing prohibition on selling counterfeit plates by prohibiting websites like Facebook from even allowing transactions.
Assemblywoman Rajkumar’s bill likewise authorizes the booting and towing of vehicles with obscured plates. It also requires officers to confiscate any instrument used to obscure a plate.
For vehicles with no plates at all, the Ghostbuster Act allows law enforcement to immediately tow them, repealing a legal requirement that the vehicle first be unoccupied for at least 6 hours. This ends the cumbersome requirement to check a vehicle for plates multiple times to tow or even report it, despite the improbability that the car will gain legitimate plates in this timeframe.
To further empower police to crack down on ghost cars, Assemblywoman Rajkumar’s bill allows law enforcement to use Vehicle Identification Numbers in lieu of license plates. Currently, police can only use a license plate to enforce certain violations, even if the plate is counterfeit. To bolster enforcement by VIN, the Ghostbuster Act will phase in a requirement that all vehicles have an engraved VIN. The bill also eliminates the requirement that a summons include a description of the vehicle’s body type, whose subjectivity has led to dismissals of otherwise accurate summonses when descriptions were deemed wrong.
At his press conference on ghost car enforcement, Mayor Eric Adams said, “We're going to need our partners in Albany, and that's why Assemblywoman Rajkumar is so important, as we continue to put together a State plan of how do we crack down even more on these ghost cars.”
The bill number is pending.
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