The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is reminding New Yorkers of changes to the law that now bans the sale of license plate covers and increases penalties for those convicted of obscuring a license plate to avoid detection or toll collection. The new sections of the law took effect on September 1 and are part of ongoing enforcement efforts under Governor Kathy Hochul’s direction, including the establishment of a multi-agency task force to crack down on “ghost” plates and “ghost” cars using fake or altered plates.
 

“These changes to the law are meant to make sure that everyone who makes use of public infrastructure is paying their fair share to use them,” said DMV Commissioner and Chair of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee Mark J.F. Schroeder. “Toughening the law will also help authorities crack down on criminals who try to avoid detection when committing crimes by making use of ghost plates or license plate coverings.”
 

The new law increases penalties for covering a license plate with a glass or plastic covering, or with any kind of material or substance that could distort a recorded or photographic image of the plate taken by a traffic camera or electronic toll reader. 
 

Monetary fines for these violations are increasing from not less than $100 to no more than $500, and anyone convicted of purposely obscuring their plate with a cover or special material will have to surrender that cover or material. Repeat plate covering offenders with three or more convictions within five years will now face a 90-day suspension of their vehicle registration.
 

It is also now illegal to sell or distribute those materials and covers, or any material designed to look like a lawful license plate but has not been legally issued by the NYS DMV or similar agencies in other states.
 

New York State and New York City have already made tremendous headway in fighting ghost plates and toll evaders through nearly 40 enforcement operations since March of this year. Those enforcement details were conducted collaboratively with New York State Police, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, MTA, New York City Police Department, the New York City Sheriff’s Office, and the DMV. They have resulted in more than 450 arrests, nearly 18,500 summonses and more than 2,100 vehicle seizures for unpaid tolls and judgments totaling more than $19 million.   

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