The NYPD and a slew of city and state agencies conducted a massive task enforcement initiative on Monday to stop drivers attempting to avoid congestion pricing and other tolls.
Jan. 27 marked the 65th interagency operation since the team-up began in 2024 and saw the likes of NYPD, MTA Police, state troopers, Sheriff’s office, and more situating themselves at major access points to Manhattan. amNewYork Metro observed the operation unfold on the Brooklyn side of the Hugh Carey (Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel on Monday afternoon.
The Hugh Carey Tunnel leads into Lower Manhattan, located within the Congestion Relief Zone. At peak hours, drivers are charged a $9 toll to enter local streets; however, drivers using the tunnel can still connect directly with the West Side Highway or the FDR Drive without being charged.
Police lined up as they prepared to make the stops, outlining emergency protocols and the fastest routes to nearby trauma centers in case criminals attempted to either drive into an officer or even began firing during the traffic stops, which are often the most dangerous interactions for law enforcement.
Although these enforcements have been taking place since before congestion pricing was implemented, police say they are particularly keeping their eyes peeled for drivers either using fake license plates or obscuring their plates because of the new toll. However, they charge that the patrols are not about keeping cash in the MTA’s account but keeping dangerous criminals who don’t want to be found off the streets.
“These operations, from the PD standpoint, this is a threat to our public safety and traffic safety,” said NYPD Deputy Chief of Transportation Thomas Alps. “That’s the origin of why we established this interagency task force. So that’s our focus. It’s not, as some would make it, about congestion pricing, or central business district or things of that name. This isn’t toll enforcement. This is enforcement of individuals that are a threat to our safety.”
Still, cops say they are able to catch people wanted for serious crimes as they try to avoid detection by skipping the tolls. This includes individuals suspected of engaging in robberies and shootings.
“We have people wanted for robberies, burglaries, and conspiracy. We even had individuals that tried to push through us on motorcycles that were unregistered and it had a firearm on them,” Alps noted. “So, it’s quite productive on the crime-fighting strategy, as well as the traffic safety strategy standpoint.”
Over the course of the afternoon, the task force used license plate readers to identify those with fake or obscured plates and began pulling over vehicle after vehicle.
Many of the drivers stopped were caught not only using paper plates but also having their identifications removed entirely from their vehicles. In one of these incidents, a driver was found to also be possessing a paper plate that led to him being hurled away in handcuffs and his vehicle towed.
MTA President of Bridges and Tunnels Cathy Sheridan says that, amazingly, the bureau has not seen an increase in the use of altered plates since congestion pricing launched on Jan. 5.
“I wouldn’t say an uptick. I think actually, the fake and altered plates are a pretty flat number is what we’re seeing,” Sheridan said. “So 92% of the people pay, whether that’s by E-Z pass or tolls by mail up front, and there’s about 8% that either they’re on billable where we don’t know who they are because of a ghost plate, or they just don’t pay, even after we’ve sent them multiple bills. So, it’s the 8% you know we’re actually trying to recover.”
In 2024, during similar operations, police say they made a total of 740 arrests and seized over 3,400 vehicles. During a typical operation on a given day, officers make about 10 arrests, write about 500 summons, and seize about 50 vehicles.
