50 States Of Fraud: Take The Great American Road Trip Without Leaving NYC
Mayor Mamdani set off a firestorm this summer when he sent letters to thousands of city homeowners instructing them to prove their New York City residence in order to avoid paying the state’s new pied-à-terre tax on expensive second homes.
As it turned out, many of those supposed New Yorkers couldn’t produce the necessary documentation — and some because they’ve registered their cars and gotten their driver’s licenses out-of-state to save money on car insurance.
How bad is the problem? All you have to do is take a “Great American Road Trip” without even leaving the Big Apple — you’ll see the full scourge of insurance fraud. In just a few recent days, Streetsblog reporters went on their own road trips (by bike!) and found plates from all 50 states (and the District of Columbia!) and matched them up to public records.
These fraudsters ain’t out-of-towners!
Take, for example, an Alaska license plate we found in the west Bronx — it’s accumulated 46 parking and speeding violations since 2021, the most recent on Sept. 18, 2026. And that Hawai’i plate we spotted in Downtown Brooklyn, an ocean and continent away from its supposed home? It has 16 parking violations since September 2025 — the most recent on Sept. 4, 2026.
And how about the Florida plate we spotted in Brooklyn? Even though the driver covered it with an opaque shield, the car still racked up 77 tickets, including 24 speed-camera tickets.
And the only 10 I see when it comes to this Tennessee plate is the 10 tickets it’s accumulated since early 2025.
“I’m surprised how many people I see that supposedly live in Texas on the Upper West Side,” “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, a former New York City traffic commissioner, once joked to Streetsblog.
Where to find them
The map below shows the number of parking and automated camera tickets issued to out-of-state cars between May 1 and Aug. 11, 2026. The NYPD’s Midtown South Precinct had the highest volume of tickets for out-of-state cars — over 25,000 in 102 days. The data shows heavy concentration in Manhattan precincts, with outer boroughs seeing patchier but still significant numbers of violations.
The NYPD gave out upwards of four million parking tickets to out-of-state vehicles between Aug. 1, 2025 and Aug. 1, 2026, according to NYC Open Data. The majority of those, excluding the tri-state area and Pennsylvania, were from distant territories such as Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maine and Virginia.
The map below shows the most common out-of-state plate in each NYPD precinct (after eliminating plates from the tri-state area):
Fraud economics
Car owners’ frequently bemoan the high cost of their choice to own a private vehicle in the most transit-rich city in the Western world — and that constant feeling of aggrievement convinces them they are justified in small-time fraud.
Car insurance rates across states factor in traffic, perceived risk, severe weather and other arcane factors. In Vermont, annual insurance rates average about $1,568. In New York City, some car owners pay more than twice that — so registering out-of-state seems like a no-brainer for such entitled drivers.
It is very rare to be caught and prosecuted for insurance fraud, but it is fraud nonetheless; state law requires residents to get a New York registration and license plate within 30 days of moving here. Driving without New York State registration after that point can subject a driver to a fine up to $300 and even 15 days in jail.
Those fees pale in comparison to the costs for the law-abiding New Yorkers. A 2025 City Council investigation found that out-of-state vehicles with faulty registration had more than double the amount of outstanding fines than vehicles with plates that matched the vehicle’s registration. And there’s a cost to all of us: A 2025 audit report from the city comptroller office estimated the city loses over $100 million in speed camera revenue each year due to license plate rejections.
And insurers claim they lost $50.2 million to fraud last year, up 20 percent from $38.9 million when Gov. Hochul took office in 2021, according to a Streetsblog review of data collected annually by DFS. And that’s just the amount insurers know of.
Beyond that is the safety angle that is always top of Streetsblog’s mind: Vehicles with faulty registration had 49 percent more speed camera violations and 74 percent more fire hydrant violations than vehicles with plates that matched their registration, according to the City Council investigation.
The “high risk” created by out-of-state drivers — who speed more than average and aren’t registered in New York — makes insurance companies charge more for everyone else because of the heightened danger that the bad apples cause inside the Big Apple. That motivates even more drivers to register out-of-state to avoid big bills — compounding the problem while punishing law-abiding New Yorkers. (Jimmy and the Jaywalkers even has a song about it.)
Running it down
Here’s how all of the 50 plates we spotted break down. Every one of these out-of-state cars received tickets, which belies the notion that these vehicles belong to tourists:
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