Gersh Kuntzman, an established journalist with a career dating back to 1989, spends his days cruising city streets in search of damaged license plates caused by vehicles attempting to evade speed and red-light cameras.
The New York Police Department has labeled a man a lawbreaker for repairing license plates. Officials estimate that New Yorkers’ deliberate vandalism to avoid paying fines has cost the city more than $100 million this year.
The improbable hero goes by the name Gersh Kuntzman, whose meticulous documentation of his escapades on Twitter has earned him both the title of local hero and the ire of several criminals, including sworn officers.
Kuntzman, an established writer whose career dates back to 1989, leads something of a double life, spending his days both at a desk and roaming city streets in search of tags that have been damaged by cars attempting to evade the law.
Kuntzman is seeking to tackle a situation known as camera evasion, which occurs when drivers cover their license plates with camera-proof screens and sprays, or deface them in some other way, in order to avoid detection by speed and red-light cameras.
These evasions have skyrocketed in recent years, according to the city’s police, although summonses for similar infractions have curiously decreased since last year.
This has prompted citizen enforcers like Kuntzman to take action, straightening and occasionally recoloring the hidden plates that are frequently visible on city officials’ vehicles.
Gersh Kuntzman, an established journalist with a career dating back to 1989, spends his days cruising city streets in search of damaged license plates caused by vehicles attempting to evade speed and red-light cameras.
The New York Police Department has labeled a man a lawbreaker for repairing license plates. Officials estimate that New Yorkers’ deliberate vandalism to avoid paying fines has cost the city more than $100 million this year.
The improbable hero goes by the name Gersh Kuntzman, whose meticulous documentation of his escapades on Twitter has earned him both the title of local hero and the ire of several criminals, including sworn officers.
Kuntzman, an established writer whose career dates back to 1989, leads something of a double life, spending his days both at a desk and roaming city streets in search of tags that have been damaged by cars attempting to evade the law.
Kuntzman is seeking to tackle a situation known as camera evasion, which occurs when drivers cover their license plates with camera-proof screens and sprays, or deface them in some other way, in order to avoid detection by speed and red-light cameras.
These evasions have skyrocketed in recent years, according to the city’s police, although summonses for similar infractions have curiously decreased since last year.
This has prompted citizen enforcers like Kuntzman to take action, straightening and occasionally recoloring the hidden plates that are frequently visible on city officials’ vehicles.
However, although hit-and-runs have increased – 93 involving serious injuries were reported last year – arrests for the same offenses have decreased, with only 23% of hit-and-run instances resulting in an arrest and only 3% of them being solved.
The number is a 12 percent decline from 2018, when the epidemic and defund the police rallies ushered in a climate of lawlessness that has since continued in the city.
This negative phenomena has been attributed to camera evasion by experts and seasoned New Yorkers such as Kuntzman, who has made it his mission to identify twisted, discolored, and other scannable tags and fix them personally.
However, his endeavor, which was well-documented on social media, prompted a negative response from the New York Police Department after he encountered numerous police vehicles with illegible license plates.
Not one to show favoritism, Kuntzman repaired the automobiles as he would any other, prompting the department to issue a warning that it takes license plate tampering’very seriously’, regardless of whether the offender is a member of the public or an officer.
Kuntzman, a former editor and reporter for both The Daily News and The New York Post, claims to have received threats from more locals as a result of his conduct.
The seasoned journalist has steadfastly continued his effort, carrying a screwdriver to remove coverings and phony license plates and a blue Sharpie to replace letters and numbers that have been scraped off.
In a video posted by Kuntzman last week, the Good Samaritan claimed that a car with a defaced license plate belonged to a Park Slope, Brooklyn police officer assigned to the 78th Precinct. Other films depict similar violations by other city officials, who, according to Kuntzman and others, are among the worst violators of license plate restrictions.
In the vicinity of courthouses and police stations, he and other advocates routinely detect high concentrations of illegitimate license plates.
When reached by Dailymail.com on Saturday, officials from the New York Police Department declined to comment more on these claims.
»NYC vigilante films himself repairing damaged locals’ license plates in order to avoid being fined«