Transcript: Ghosts Busters: Mayor Adams Launches New DSNY/NYPD Ghost Car Task Force to Remove Illegal Cars From NYC Streets

September 18, 2024

Deputy Mayor Philip Banks III, Public Safety:  Good morning, everyone. I'm Deputy Mayor Phil Banks, deputy mayor of Public Safety. I'm joined here today by the New York City Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon. Good morning. New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch and the chief enforcement officer for Sanitation, Police Chief Ed Thompson. 

We have the NYPD deputy chief of the Support Services Bureau, Marlon Laron, New York City Department of Transportation First Deputy Commissioner Margaret Forgione. We have Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar and the mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams. 

So we're here to talk today about ghost cars. So real quick, what is a ghost car? By definition, it's a car with license plates that are either fake, missing, faulted, obstructed, or fraudulent. But let's examine what they really are. These are people who say the rules do not apply to me. They apply to you, but not to me. That I'm going to go out there and I'm going to commit my robberies, and I'm going to commit my crimes, and I'm not going to pay my tolls, and I'm going to speed, and I'm not going to stop at stop signs, and there's nothing you can do about it. I am going to just put this pillage on the citizens of New York City, and there's nothing that you can do. 

They think that they can make any crime they choose without facing any consequences, and the Adams administration says, nope, not in our city. We're done footing the bill. We're done letting you disrupt our quality of life. Let's be perfectly clear. There's no legitimate reason for anyone to drive a ghost car. I mean, there's some narcotics that are illegal, but there's a legitimate reason, if they administer, but no reason at all to be driving one of these ghost cars. 

That's why we're going to take every one of these untraceable cars off the streets, and when we take them off the streets, every time we take one off, we become a little bit safer. With that, I'd like to introduce the mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, D.M. Banks. I remember you coming into the office, sharing with me this whole concept about ghost cars and what we were doing. 

We needed a real partner to address not only the removal, but the storage and we found that in the ever-fighting presence of Commissioner Tisch, who has really focused on this issue at the level that we believe it ought to. And 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 as they move into session this year, of how do we crack down even more on these ghost cars. 

And the deputy mayor gave a definition, but, you know, just a simple one. These cars are a pain in the ass. They want to do whatever they want to do, and not only do they address the issues of not paying tolls, but they also are very much part of the criminal element that we're witnessing in this city, and that's in contrast to our overall mission of keeping New Yorkers safe. I say it over and over again, the prerequisite to our prosperity is public safety. No one knows it better, and no one does it better than the NYPD, and with the partnership with the Department of Sanitation, we're taking a real bite out of this issue, and these are becoming ghost car busters in the process. 

These issues drive up crime. They are a major impact on criminal behavior as they move throughout the night, and they are undetected, often being extremely aggressive in their action, and we knew we needed a clear focus and concentration. That's why we assigned 15 NYPD officers who are working with the Department of Sanitation's crew under the leadership of Commissioner Tisch. We're going after the unregistered, uninsured, and many times stolen vehicles that have been ignored for so many years. The previous years, these vehicles have been passed by. No one has really cramped down on them. The plates that are coming from other municipalities that are being sold through social media were basically ignored. 

We focused on it at the toll booths when they were moving, but they were ignored in a stationary position. That is not happening anymore. These cars are going to see the level of enforcement that is required to go after the fake and paper plates, and in some bold manners, you saw no plates at all, no registration sticker on the windshield, no inspection sticker, not having car insurance, all the things that could be a nightmare if you are struck by one of these vehicles or you get into a vehicle accident. 

They've been used to inflict not only hit and runs, but very serious crimes in our city, shootings, robberies, and other dangerous incidents that we are witnessing. So we're not going to stand by. This was the clear initiative and the focus that the deputy mayor brought to my attention a few months ago and quickly got this up and operating. And what does it look like number-wise? In five nights, in five nights, we were able to remove over 295 ghost cars from our streets. In five nights. 

The new approach builds on our successful abandoned vehicle task force model and will boost our ongoing efforts to combat ghost cars. And so earlier this year, you know, we joined the governor and other law enforcement entities in the tri-state area to go after those who are at our toll booth. And on Saturday, the task force completed its 41st major enforcement operation. In those operations, the task force made 490 arrests, issued 20,000 summonses, and took cars where the owners owed $21 million in unpaid tolls, taxes, fees, and more. 

And so these vehicles are more than just a nuisance. They address our economic challenges, and they are feeders of some of the major crimes that we are seeing in our city. And this is our way of ensuring that we go after them when they're moving through our toll booths, but also when they are in parks and communities where you're seeing this high level of crime. 

So I want to thank the interim police commissioner, Tom Donlon, Commissioner Tisch, and Deputy Mayor Banks for this 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation of going after a major quality-of-life issue that we've been facing in the city. Thanks again, D.M.

Deputy Mayor Banks: And with that next, we will hear from the New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Department of Sanitation: Thank you, [D.M.] Banks. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Ghost cars, as you've heard, come in many flavors. 

The owners of these vehicles evade detection from law enforcement by operating with no plates, fake plates, plates not registered to a vehicle, or expired plates. They can be New York State plates, out-of-state plates, temporary or permanent. But what too many of them have in common is that time and again, these untraceable vehicles are involved in shootings, in homicides and robberies, and their drivers have been caught with firearms, leaving the scene of a crime. 

Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul have previously established a task force that you just heard about, focused on catching these cars at bridges and tunnels, i.e. catching them in motion. But what about the rest of the time? What about where they're sitting on your block, taking up public space without paying, sitting and waiting for the next time they'll make our streets less safe? This is part and parcel of the new strategy we are announcing today, a joint NYPD/DSNY task force focused on getting these cars where they spend the vast majority of their time, where they're parked. 

Fifteen uniformed cops from the NYPD are now detailed to the Sanitation Department for the exclusive purpose of tagging and towing ghost cars parked in neighborhoods across the city, stopping them before the key goes into the ignition. Regular operations with a portion of the officers began last Tuesday, and in the first five days, as you've heard, the new ghost car task force took 295 of these vehicles off the streets from precincts like the 75, the 40, the 41 and the 42. And they aren't hard to find. If you own one of these vehicles, you're going to go to sleep, perhaps feeling smug about avoiding registration fees, but make no mistake about it. One day, quite soon, you're going to wake up and you're going to find that your ghost car is gone. 

This task force is operating all hours of the day, seven days a week. NYPD officers will run your plate straight from their department issued phone. And if it's invalid or if it doesn't match the vehicle, it will be towed. We have set up an unprecedented interagency towing operation, including towing assets from DSNY, the NYPD's Transportation Bureau and private road tow vendors. Given my background, I would be remiss to not mention the tech involved here. Things like the domain awareness system, NYPD smartphones and tablets in RMPs are fundamental to so many tailor made strategies designed to reduce crime and disorder. And now ghost cars are no exception. 

So when we find and tow your ghost car, the vehicle will be held at a vendor's lot. You'll have seven days to show up with valid registration, title, and proof of insurance. If you manage to scrounge up all of the necessary paperwork, the paperwork you should have had, you'll only be on the hook for a few hundred dollars worth of storage and towing fees. If you don't get there in seven days, the car will be moved to an NYPD lot like this one. And the title holder, which may or may not be you, will be notified that they have 30 days to claim the vehicle. If no one claims it, your car will be auctioned off. You're welcome to try to buy it back. And if no one purchases it, it comes to DSNY where we will happily destroy it. 

We know the interagency approach works. The DSNY-NYPD Abandoned Vehicle Task Force focused on cars left on the streets indefinitely and removed almost 13,000 such vehicles last year, double the number the prior year before the task force was created. We looked at a problem that was affecting the safety and the well-being of New Yorkers and started from the expectation that there had to be a well-crafted solution. That's what you have here. Thank you, Chief Banks. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for your leadership in bringing us together.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you. And I'd just like to add that the chief of Patrol, John Chell, did a one-week pilot on ghosts, on plates covered. 3,000 summonses they issued in one week of people covering their plates. So this is a major problem. Went to the mayor, he jumped right on top of it. And what happened? Multiple law enforcement agencies together, working together as one particular team. And you're going to see how we're going to make a huge dent very quickly into this particular process there. And with that, I'd like to introduce the New York City interim police commissioner, Tom Donlon.

Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon: Thank you very much, Mayor Adams. Thank you, commissioner. We go back a long way also. And Deputy Mayor Banks. 

Before I attend these conferences, I like to conduct my research and fully understand, you know, to define the mission, the approach, the organization, the structure, and what we're hoping to accomplish. You know, with that said, I depend on the resident experts, as we call them. Last night, I called Deputy Chief Thompson, who provided me background on how this initiative began and going forward, how we will handle this initiative. 

You know, I'm a big proponent of the task force concept. It's the only way we go. And I'm sure most of you know my history with the task force. And working together, we're going to come up with the right solutions. With this program, it's definitely an issue that we have to address. And one of the major discussions I had with Mayor Adams initially was we have to listen to the public. We're going to make sure they're safe and secure. And I know the public has reached out to the Police Department and addressed these problems, and what can we do to help them? So I think that's very, very important. 

And myself, I listen to people, assess things, and I depend on two-star chiefs, three-star chiefs that I'm working with. And I always look for their input, suggestions, and how do we go forward with this. But I think this is an excellent task force. It's going to be successful. Sanitation Department is very concerned with the issue, along with the Police Department. And they want to resolve this issue. 

And a lot of the complaints from the public was that these cars are parked in their residence, they're parked by schools, and something needs to be done. Of course, these cars go through toll booths, speed traps, or whatever. But the main concern here is these are bad people. And we also focus on the violent crimes that come with this. And I believe that this will be successful. And in my position, as I mentioned, I'm a big proponent of the task force concept. And I will look to other task forces that we can possibly implement. I'm in discussion with a lot of the different chiefs, and I think it's important that we develop a program, also show that the mayor does care, and that this is one of his top priorities. 

So I want to thank you for coming today. And hopefully we'll meet again to discuss these matters. And this is a 90-day trial run. And I see this being very, very successful. And the Sanitation Department brings a lot to this program. And years ago, I worked with the Sanitation Department. I remember on 87th Street, I used to go speak to some of the foremen and assistant foremen who were involved in investigations. And they're very smart people. But this is going to work because we know the direction we're going in, and that's important. And before you get involved in these task forces, you really have to define the process and how we go forward. So I appreciate your time. And it's great to see everyone here. And I guess we'll have some questions after that.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you. And I'd just like to acknowledge Chief Thompson. He's pretty quiet. He stays in the background. But he's the person who runs the day-to-day. He's the one who's calling me at night saying, we have this many cars. And I think he used the term, like, it's like fish in a barrel, that there's just so many cars out there. So I just want to acknowledge that, Chief Thompson, all the work that you did putting this together. And with that, we will hear from Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. 

State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar: Good morning. Ghost vehicles are a menace to our city. And at a time when we desperately need money for the MTA to upgrade our buses and subways, ghost vehicles are costing us hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid tickets, fines, and toll evasion. Drivers of these ghost vehicles are openly flouting the rules. 

There is a clear connection between these illegal vehicles and violent crime. They are involved in hit and runs, robberies, and shootings. In our state capitol this year, myself and my fellow lawmakers passed legislation to ban the sale of license plate covers and increase the fine for obscuring a plate. The law took effect this month. As of September 1st, it is now illegal to sell products designed to conceal or obscure license plates. 

But we need to do more to get rid of ghost cars. That's why I am proud to announce that I'm introducing the Ghost Busters Bill in Albany this upcoming session. My Ghost Busters Bill will empower law enforcement to use VIN numbers to issue summonses when there is a phony plate. This way, ghost vehicles don't get a pass because they will be identified by the VIN in their windshield. And my legislation will also allow the boot for ghost vehicles, immobilizing them. 

Thank you, mayor, for creating this interagency task force. Working together, we will be the exorcist that banishes the ghost cars haunting our city.

Mayor Adams: A few on-topic questions. Marcia, what's going on? 

Question: I have two questions for you. The first one is that you said that ghost cars were a pain in the ass. I'd like you to tell me why they're a pain in the ass and why you have to get them off the streets. And my second question has to do with the task forces that the police commissioner said are going to be the new task forces. What kind of new task forces are you contemplating? [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: First, let's talk about the pain of the ghost vehicles. Throughout the last two years and nine months, when we did an analysis of the repeated crimes, we're finding that there's the ever-presence of obscured plates, no plates, paper plates, individuals who are just deciding to be uninsured. And when you look at how they're being used to carry out crimes, the purpose of a plate is to be able to identify and attach a vehicle with a particular history and record. 

When you don't have that plate, even if our advanced video surveillance that we have throughout the city, even if they capture the vehicle, if that vehicle doesn't have a plate or it's a fake plate or if it's an outdated paper plate, it is extremely challenging to capture the person who's involved in the crime. And so they have been wreaking havoc on our city on a number of crimes. We do an analysis of some of the violent crimes that we have witnessed leaving the scene, a number of the accidents leaving the scene. It has been a real terror on our streets, and that's why we're zeroing in on these paper plates, illegal plates, unregistered. 

And nothing is more horrific than a person who's been struck by a vehicle or a car may have been in the impact of the crash, just to learn a person did not have a registration, did not have insurance. Now you are footing the bill and the medical costs and any other costs attached. So this is the type of everyday quality of life issues that these cars have created. And they've been ignored. For many years, they've been ignored. And there has been a level of comfortability that they can go free from any type of impunity. And that is, and I really commend the team of both the commissioner and the deputy mayor for bringing that about. 

As the commissioner stated, the commissioner was part of JTTF. What I always believe, there are too many walls that separate our agencies and our organizations, and it has always been our mission to dismantle those walls. And that's what we have done over and over again. And we're going to continue to expand on these joint operations to go after the bad guys. Because the bad guys, they're coordinated, they're working together, and we're going to work together to dismantle some of the actions that they're taking.

Question: So two quick questions. First for the mayor, then for the commissioner. Mayor, as you know, this task force has shown initial promise in getting those cars off the street. But as you also know, last year there were about 51,000 complaints to 311 about abandoned vehicles, and those complaints only yielded about 3.5 percent of the cars getting towed away. So I'm wondering, is this task force kind of running in parallel with a broken 311 system? And you're hoping that this task force will do the job that 311 isn't doing? 

And then a second question for the commissioner, I can ask now if you want. For the commissioner, you had mentioned these almost 300 cars seized in just a couple of days, five months. But then you also mentioned there's this seven-day period under which a driver can produce these documents, i.e. claiming the vehicle. How many of the cars that you've seized so far have then been claimed? Because that's also been a problem with 311.

Mayor Adams: 311 is not a broken system. It's an excellent system. Hats off to Mayor Bloomberg for the concept of responding to the calls and the volumes of the calls. And we should have continued the success in the implementation. I think that there was a slight pause on how to evolve that system more. 

But what Deputy Mayor Banks has been doing is really leaning into 311, what Chief Technology Officer Matt Fraser is doing as to how to use technology for return calls. I think it is one of the top innovative actions that Mayor Bloomberg did. And it's not a dysfunctional system. It is not a failing system. It is a system that's going to be constantly under evolution. And this city should be proud to have a system that the millions of calls we get that don't go to 911. If we didn't have a 311, we would be overburdening 911. Now New Yorkers understand what an emergency is and what is a quality of life issue that we could address. Commissioner, you want to talk about those cars?

Commissioner Tisch: Gersh, as usual, you ask the same question that I asked. But because the operation is five days old, we're going to wait until after the seven days are up and gather all of the data. And it's going to be very interesting to see how many of those cars are claimed from road tow, from the private lot, how many of them make it here to the NYPD's pound, how many of them are claimed from here during the 30-day period. And I actually think that information will very much inform our future operations. So we will be very happy to share the information when we have it. 

Mayor Adams: And we'd rather have it in the lot than on your block. You know, that's the goal. The goal is these guys have been operating free from any form of actions, and that's why we're taking action. What's up, Kelly?

Question: I'm good. You got my name right today.

Mayor Adams: You know, I'm not perfect. I'm perfectly imperfect.

Question: I wanted to ask, I know this is a task force and it's only running for a certain amount of time. Is there plans to maybe continue on in the future? Obviously, these people with these illegal plates now know that there's just a certain amount of time that they can get caught. Maybe they won't drive their car within that certain amount of time. What's the long-term goal here? Because this is a persistent problem.

Deputy Mayor Banks: When we say we have a 90-day task force, 90 days we're going to look to evaluate it. We're going to look at the progress. If the progress, in fact, has been sufficient, that it can go back to the normal process, we'll do it. If not, we will either expand the task force or continue to keep it going. 

We realize that this is a major, major problem. So when you start a task force, you say 90 days because you don't know what you're going to uncover. And in 90 days, we'll make that particular evaluation. And I'm very fortunate to actually deal with Jessica Tisch because when you go to Commissioner Tisch, she's on top of it. And she's like, so 90 days is just something that if the bad guys and the bad girls out there think, oh, I can lay low in 90 days, we have another surprise for you, right? Put your car out there on the 91st day and you will see what is going to happen. 

And just clear, Kelly, I just want you, this is not just about evading tolls. These are people who are committing crimes. They're robbing, they're stealing from people, right? And you're going to see now, when those stats come out, very few people are going to be coming to get their cars because they've committed crimes that they don't think we know about. They're not coming to get these particular cars. And you will see why we concentrated in the precincts that we do, the 73, the 75, the 40, the 41. 

And as Chief Thompson said, he calls me up, he said, it's like fish in a barrel. We got on a block because one goes to the other. So 90 days, I hope they focus on that and I hope they start putting their cars back on the 91st day and they will find out the 91st of the day is going to feel like the first day because we're going to grab that car.

Commissioner Tisch: I'll just also add, like, look around at the scenery and see how many cars are here. Most of those were not claimed from the private vendor in the seven-day period. So, Gersh, that's more anecdotal. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Commissioner Tisch: So the way the abandoned vehicle task force started several months ago, this builds on top of it, was people would call 311 and problems with cars come in many flavors. One type of problem was always handled by the Department of Sanitation. Those are derelict vehicles. Those are vehicles that are completely busted up. They're very low dollar value and have no plates. 

But there are other types of vehicles like, for example, ghost cars, cars that are parked on streets forever that have a value above $1,250. Those would be handled by the NYPD. And so it was a problem with 311 where both agencies would go like this, pointing at the other. And so we developed the abandoned vehicle task force to streamline that 311 process so that the caller didn't have to know, is the vehicle derelict or is it a road tow? Not their problem. That's our problem. 

And so the abandoned vehicle task force was made up of both sanitation supervisors who could deal with any derelict vehicle and NYPD cops who could deal with any road tow vehicle. That's how the whole thing originated. Then it expanded when we said, oh, wow, there's this ghost car problem. And we said, why don't we get them where they park? And given that we had this very productive partnership to deal with these vehicles on streets, we decided to build off of that.

Question: Just driving down the street, you still see these. It's like, wow, everybody just bought a new car. It's unbelievable. So to be clear, you're still pulling them and you'll take the car. Is that correct? 

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Question: It's not just a park situation. And also some of these are really nice cars. What if a car was stolen? Do you have a chance of getting it back?

Mayor Adams: Yes. And there are systems that we have in place if someone reported their car is stolen. And there are notifications that are made because we do find that some of these vehicles are stolen. 

And you're right. As you move through the city, and this is why D.M. Banks brought it to my attention, there was a feeling as though that everyone had a 30-day plate. And there's an entire industry where you're able to buy these plates and place on cars. And that's what the assemblywoman was talking about. It's a combination of our enforcement action on the streets as well as legislative changes that are needed to really go after this problem. This problem got out of control because it was ignored for years. And it became just a way of doing business. 

And it hurts us on so many levels. It hurts us when not getting registration fees. It hurts us when people are not paying their tolls. It hurts us when people are the victims of these crimes. This is one area where there's a multifaceted destructive behavior that comes out of it. And that's why we're targeting it. And the days of ignoring it, just driving by, we have plate readers are now reading these plates. We have a real aggressive action of going after these illegal use of two-wheel and four-wheel vehicles on our road. And that's our focus.

Question: [Inaudible] legislation in Albany that would outlaw these things that come down so you can't read the plates or other things like that so that you could eliminate these bad plates on the street?

Mayor Adams: And that's what the assemblywoman stated, some of her ghost-busting bills that she's going to go after. That's what I like the way she went after these real quality of life issues from the Smoke Out Act and others. She's drilling down on these real quality of life, those who hide their plates, those who are using different devices to cover their plates, very sophisticated and some very just easy ways that people are trying to obscure their plates. They're doing it for a reason. And we are proactively going after them in the process.