NYC Council Bans Sale of Products that Conceal License Plates to Evade Tolls

By Yehudit Garmaise

The New York City Council passed a bill that prohibits the sale and distribution of cloudy plastic covers and similar products that cover up drivers’ license plates for the purpose of evading toll booths and traffic cameras.

Some of the plastic covers are made of material that reflect cameras’ flashes, so as to distort photographed images of license plates.

Violators face fines of $300 and up, as per the Council’s bill that was sponsored by Robert Holden (D-Queens).

“These products have no purpose but to be installed to intentionally violate the law,” Councilmember Holden said. “Those who sell these products know their only use and must be deterred from trading in them or face penalties.”

Throughout New York, drivers who are caught using the license-plate covers already face fines ranging from $50 to $300 under state law, but Councilmember Holden’s bill targets those selling the license plate covers.

Sadly, the culprits are often NYPD officers or other city or state employees, according to Liam Quigley, a student and freelance journalist, who, after noticing license plates that were bent in half or taped to cover some letters and numbers at cars parked at some police precincts, started unbending the plates and removing the tape himself, in August 2020.

“I do a pretty careful risk assessment before I touch license plates,” Quigley told the New York Post. “Even though the plates belong to the state DMV, people get very spicy when you’re near their cars.

“If it’s a city vehicle, like Department of Transportation, I’ll just do it in traffic. There was one time I did it to a [Department of Environmental Protection] truck and was like, ‘Hey man, I fixed your plate for you.'”

In 2017, the city launched a crackdown on cops who were using plastic covers to obscure the plate numbers on their own cars, after The New York Post and Inside Edition reported on their misuse.

In addition, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority supervisor was demoted and required to re-pay the $100,000 in tolls, penalties, and fines he incurred after eluding bridge and tunnel tolls, an activity about which he had bragged to his co-workers. 

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