Meet the TikTok Vigilante Fighting License Plate Criminals

"New Yorkers have dozens of diabolical ways to cheat the city's unevenly enforced traffic laws and easy-to-fool license-plate readers: temporary tags from other states, fake plates bought off Amazon, bent plates, letters or numbers painted over with Wite-Out, a sticker that turns an "L" into an "I," Bond-villain plate flippers. Even a well-placed leaf can allow cars to slip past tolls or red-light cameras. Many vehicles with defaced or concealed plates have numerous traffic violations and unpaid fines."

"Sal Cacciatore, a no-nonsense Brooklynite and longtime bicycle commuter, records every form of evasion and puts the worst offenders on TikTok out of anger. A favorite target of his has been the cops; he's documented personal cars of NYPD officers with altered license plates parked at police precincts.His videos, which get hundreds of thousands of views, belong to an established genre of citizens posting on social media about parking and license-plate violations, but there's something magnetic about the way Cacciatore does it."

A wide range of methods enables drivers to bypass New York City's traffic enforcement and license-plate readers, including temporary out-of-state tags, fake plates, bent or painted-over characters, stickers, plate flippers and even leaves. These tactics let vehicles evade tolls, red-light cameras, and parking enforcement, and many such vehicles carry multiple violations and unpaid fines. Homemade dashboard placards can deter parking tickets. A Brooklyn bicyclist documents and posts these violations on TikTok, often capturing officers' personal cars with altered plates. The videos attract large audiences through direct, street-level footage and confrontational exchanges with violators.

Read at Intelligencer