The new head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Kathryn Garcia, pledged in February to increase enforcement against illegal taxi hustlers at area airports. Gothamist reported in January that taxi scammers have become increasingly common at JFK Airport since the pandemic. The decades-old scheme involves hustlers posing as cabbies and tricking tourists into entering their cars, then shaking them down for exorbitant fares.
“[This] is a serious problem and we need to take a multipronged approach to actually solving it,” said Garcia, former director of state operations for the governor’s office and ex-city sanitation commissioner. “Let’s look at the actual statutes and where do they need to be changed? How are we deploying both our undercover and our uniform forces? Where can we be using technology?”
In December, Garcia’s predecessor, Rick Cotton, announced a $100 million program, “Operation Legal Ride,” that will expand the use of license plate readers, artificial intelligence-aided surveillance and analytics to help police identify hustlers’ cars.
Soliciting rides at an area airport is a misdemeanor, with a maximum fine of $3,000 and 90 days in jail. The Port Authority said it has issued more than 2,400 summonses for the illegal solicitation of rides at JFK Airport between January and November of last year – but recent visits to the JFK’s international terminal by Gothamist found that hustlers were as active as ever.
The January Gothamist article told the story of a couple from Kenya who paid $800 for a ride from the airport to their hotel in Times Square. The trip should have cost around $70 in a licensed yellow taxi. The practice not only rips off unknowing tourists, it squeezes legal yellow cab drivers who are already losing money in an industry that continues to struggle.
According to the article, “The Port Authority Police Department is responsible for cracking down on the schemers, but Gothamist observed dozens of the drivers operating in plain view at all of JFK’s terminals over several days this month. Airport workers, legal yellow cab drivers and even several hustlers interviewed by Gothamist said scammer activity has increased in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and estimated hundreds of hustlers prowl the terminals’ arrival areas.”
“They used to tie them up and carry them away and take the car… before the pandemic,” said Michael Carey, a Port Authority customer service specialist. “After the pandemic it’s a free for all.”
The scheme isn’t exclusive to JFK. Illegal cab drivers also hunt for rides at LaGuardia, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and even popular department stores like Macy’s in Herald Square. It circumvents regulations imposed on yellow cab and for-hire vehicle drivers, who’ve gone the legal route to drive people around the five boroughs. Many of those drivers say they’re getting hammered by costs to continue working, like hefty car insurance, financing, and an increase in the percentage of their fares going to apps like Uber and Lyft. Several licensed cabbies said the hustlers make it harder to get fares at the airport.
Garcia indicated she would consider asking state legislators to pass new laws toughening penalties for illegal cabbies if a crackdown is ineffective. She also said she has “other thoughts” that she wants to consider with her operations team as she begins to lead the agency.
