Meet the man exposing NYC's toll

Release time：2024-05-21 12:03:51 Source：Global Grounds news portal

A vigilante is patrolling the streets of New York City – exposing motorists with illegal license plates and the very sneaky tricks they use to conceal their true identity.

Gersh Kuntzman, 58, cycles across the Big Apple armed with a camera to record the culprits and a Sharpie and screwdriver to fix their plates.

But cleaning the streets completely is a near-impossible task. Corrupted license plates are everywhere – and, Kuntzman says, the main offenders are cops.

Scofflaws' tactics range from bending the plates to cover the license numbers to intentionally scraping off numbers and letters. Some even use magnetic, fake leaves or reflective covers to conceal their plates.

The practice helps culprits dodge tolls, speed cameras and red light cameras. Criminals can also use it cover up crimes including vehicle theft.

In New York, it's estimated to cost up to $100 million a year. But license plate tampering is a problem nationwide.

Gersh Kuntzman records himself exposing a beaten up license plate in New York City

Kuntzman takes a sharpie to the scuffed up license plates and redraws the covered numbers

Some motorists even use magnetic fake leaves like the one pictures to cover their plates

On a ride-out with Kuntzman on Thursday, DailyMail.com witnessed his eagle-eyed ability to spot culprits first-hand. And it took a matter of minutes to find two separate vehicles whose plates allegedly fall foul of New York traffic rules.

We met Kuntzman at 3pm outside his office in downtown Manhattan and picked up Citibikes for a tour of the 'hotspots'.

He explained that concealed license plates are rife in the area around City Hall and the New York courts, including the criminal court where Donald Trump is currently on trial.

And that's partly because police and court staff are, allegedly, some of the worst offenders, Kuntzman said.

The first case on our ride-out was at a row of parked cars on Federal Plaza, close to New York County Supreme Court.

But it wasn't a cop. The scuffed up plates indicated the Ford Explored belonged to a member of the media, identifiable by the letters 'NYP'.

Kuntzman took out his phone, and his sharpie, and started filming.

'Let's just fix this one up, make it look right,' he says while redrawing the plate to make its numbers and letters clearly visible.

He also runs the plate number through a website which checks for fines linked to the plate. The check reveals numerous traffic violations, the last in April 2023.

'Maybe he'll start getting those tickets again,' Kuntzman adds after the plate is cleaned up.

Just nine minutes later, we're riding along nearby Vesey Street when Kuntzman calls out, 'let's stop right here, I think I see another.'

He points out a silver Mercedes-Benz which appears to have a number obscured on its front plate. A check of the rear plate shows it's also had another, different number obscured.

On the dash, a placard identifies its driver as a 'trooper surgeon on official medical business'.

Kuntzman runs this plate and also discovers it's repeatedly been hit with traffic violation fines.

He hits record on his iPhone and takes the sharpie to the scuffed up numbers.

'Some surgeon this guy turned out to be, he can't even do surgery on a freaking license plate,' Kuntzman declares.

Just a couple of hours later, Kuntzman's videos are shared on his Twitter profile, where he has more than 18,000 followers, and have been viewed thousands of times.

He says he's now uploaded nearly 250 videos exploding the license plate scofflaws.

What is this "Trooper Surgeon" doing with both his plates featuring a different number scratched off? He's a placard perp, a scofflaw and (wait for it!) a criminal miscreant! #criminalmischief pic.twitter.com/WfKETCcrQt

— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) April 18, 2024

Today, I caught one of my very own press colleagues committing #criminalmischief with his NYPD-issued press plate. (Not to mention being a recidivist speeder!) For shame! pic.twitter.com/CD85hnJLa3

— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) April 18, 2024

$100M A YEAR COST

Camera evasion across the New York Metropolitan Area, which stretches from the five boroughs across parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, is estimated to cost more than $100 million a year.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority loses about $50 million per year while losses by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey amount to around $40 million.

Kuntzman said he's noticed more altered plates since the pandemic. He believes more motorists started engaging in the nefarious practice when New York City's speed cameras started to operate round-the-clock in August 2022.

Kuntzman, a journalist who formerly worked at titles including the New York Post, Daily News and Newsweek,  initially started looking into plate tampering in 2018, when he became editor of Streetsblog NYC.

But his online campaign to expose wrongdoers took off in November 2022 when an attorney and friend, Adam White, was arrested for attempting to fix a motorist's plate.

White tried to correct the plate of a Chevy SUV in Brooklyn which had a piece of plastic covering one of its digits.

The driver, who was still in the vehicle, called the cops and officers showed up and arrested White. He was charged with criminal mischief, but the case was later dropped.

Gershman later wrote the song 'Criminal Mischief' under the band name Jimmy and the Jaywalkers – a Bob Dylan-inspired track which appears in many of his videos.

Kuntzman believes more than half of the culprits are cops or work for other city agencies

Gersh Kuntzman records himself fixing the plate of a Mercedes in downtown Manhattan

Kuntzman estimates more than half of the offenders he catches are cops, and links the conduct to the placards police and other city officials receive.

Officers are given placards which they can place on the dash of their vehicles while on official business. The placards allow them to park essentially anywhere without being ticketed or towed.

Kuntzman believes most cops start by abusing their placards – then scuff up their plates to also avoid cameras.

'Once you establish that they won't be held accountable for [placard misuse], a lot of other things in the cop's mind become permissible: covering one's plate to avoid getting a speeding ticket, scratching off a number to avoid being caught by a red light camera,' he said.

'When cops do it they're the exact people who should not be doing this because they're the ones who are supposed to enforce things like speed limits.'

Kuntzman typically looks out for offenders while cycling from his Brooklyn home to his office in downtown Manhattan.

'The thing that I think I bring to the table, and I'm proud of this, is I have a very good eye for this stuff, because I've been looking at license plates now for more than two years, literally glancing at every license plate that I bike past, and I spot things now that people can't believe that I spotted it.'

Perhaps surprisingly, Kuntzman said it is 'very rare' to be accosted by a vehicle owner while correcting their fault plates.

But his efforts to expose license plate scofflaws do not always receive a positive response on Twitter/X, where he shares selfie footage of his exploits.

Negative responses range from petty jibes like 'male Karen' to others which threaten violence against him.

But he's not perturbed. Kuntzman plans to keep up the campaign.

'I would argue vociferously that I should get a mayoral proclamation for the work I've done,' he remarks, perhaps only half joking.

An NYPD spokesperson said: 'All vehicles on NYC streets are subject to the laws governing the road including vehicles belonging to NYPD employees. Commanding Officers are responsible for monitoring officers’ vehicles parked in the vicinity of a precinct or Department facility to ensure they comply with both public laws and Department Policy.' 

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