Framing it as a public safety issue, New York City’s top attorney announced Friday a push against the illegal sale of license plate covers, which prevent police officers, toll booth readers and red-light cameras from identifying vehicles.
City Corporation counselor Sylvia Hinds-Radix said the crackdown began with cease-and-desist letters sent in February to two major auto parts distributors: Auto Zone and Advance Auto Parts.
Online retailer Amazon agreed last year to stop selling license plate covers.
“This merchandise endangers New Yorkers and has resulted in significant revenue losses for New York City,” Hinds-Radix said.
“These covers serve no legitimate purpose other than to allow people to break the law. No family should bear the loss of a loved one at the hands of a reckless driver.”
In the letters, the city estimated that from March 2022 through February, the covers allowed motorists to evade an estimated 1.5 million speed camera and red light violations, even as deaths from traffic accidents on the streets of the city increased 22% at the highest rate since 2014 in the same period.
The letter from the corporation’s assistant attorney, Eric Proshansky, also estimated that the covers cost the city and the MTA $75 million in lost revenue in recent years.
Hinds-Radix said Advance Auto Parts has already removed the items from shelves at the company’s 10 New York City locations.
In the meantime, he said, Auto Zone verbally agreed to do so. “We await written confirmation from Auto Zone,” Hinds-Radix said. “We made it clear to their law office that the city is prepared to see them in court.
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“Other retailers involved in this behavior should take note. The city intends to enforce its laws.”
Under New York City Local Law 22 of 2022, it is illegal for anyone to sell items that obscure or obscure license plate numbers so as to distort them so that digital readers cannot register the numbers.
The fine for selling the covers is $300 for the first violation and $500 for each subsequent violation.
The police have long been looking for license plate covers.
Port Authority cops arrested a Pennsylvania man on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel in May 2022 with a James Bond-style remote-controlled motorized license plate cover. Similar devices were once sold on Amazon.
