reported last week that taxi scammers have become increasingly common at JFK Airport since the pandemic<\/a>. The decades-old scheme involves hustlers posing as cabbies and tricking tourists into entering their cars, then shaking them down for exorbitant fares.<\/p>\n\u201cYou have identified something that is a serious problem and that we need to take a multipronged approach to actually solving it,\u201d Garcia, the new executive director, said in response to Gothamist\u2019s reporting at the Port Authority\u2019s monthly board meeting. \u201cLet\u2019s 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?\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia also said she has \u201cother thoughts\u201d that she wants to consider with her operations team as she begins to lead the agency.<\/p>\n
In December, Garcia\u2019s predecessor Rick Cotton announced $100 million on new technology to track and surveil taxi scammers at JFK.<\/p>\n
Soliciting a ride at the airports 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.<\/p>\n
But recent visits to the airport\u2019s international terminal by Gothamist found that hustlers were active as ever.<\/p>\n
Garcia indicated she would consider asking state legislators to pass new laws toughening penalties for illegal cabbies if a crackdown is ineffective.<\/p>\n
Cotton, whose eight-year tenure leading the Port Authority came to an end on Thursday, acknowledged that defeating the hustlers is \u201ca very difficult problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to figure out a solution \u2014 solution is the wrong word,\u201d he said. \u201cA way of deterring that kind of illegal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey pledged on Thursday to increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-125113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}