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In Crackdown on Unlicensed Taxis, City Runs Out of Room

Yellow taxis lined up for inspections on Monday at a safety center in Queens, where the lot had been filled with seized cabs.Credit...Uli Seit for The New York Times

In a bid to clear the streets of unlicensed taxis, dozens of newly hired officers at the Taxi and Limousine Commission have, in recent weeks, flagged down, fined and seized so many cars that New York City has run out of space to keep them.

With the city’s violation tow pounds at or near capacity, the commission has resorted to holding the seized vehicles in a parking lot at its safety and emissions center in Woodside, Queens, where as many as 500 taxis are inspected every day.

Finding space has become such a challenge that the commission plans to issue a request for proposals for parking lots next week; in some cases, because of the lack of space, the commission has not been able to tow away as many unlicensed taxis as it would like.

“We would seize more,” said David S. Yassky, chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, referring to its enforcement officers. “Day to day, when they are out doing their deployments, their instructions for the mission depend on how much space they have.”

On Monday morning, Mr. Yassky strolled through the parking lot in Woodside, which was filled with 69 unlicensed Lincoln Town Cars, stretch Hummers and limousines that officials had picked up since Friday. Ray Scanlon, a deputy commissioner who runs inspections and the uniformed services bureau, said 15 cars were picked up at Kennedy and La Guardia Airports on Friday. More unlicensed cars were seized near clubs in Manhattan, in the meatpacking district and in the theater district on Saturday.

On Sunday, officers seized 20 more cars in Queens from drivers who were not licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission and were illegally picking up passengers at shopping malls.

But the city had space for only four vehicles at its tow pounds over the weekend — so the commission squeezed the remaining cars into the parking lot in Woodside, where yellow taxis lined up on Monday morning for quarterly inspections.

Mr. Scanlon said he expected most of the drivers to pay their fines and retrieve their cars as soon as they could. He said he hoped the packed lot in Woodside would clear out soon, to accommodate all the taxis coming in for inspection.

“These cars, more than likely, will be retrieved by Tuesday afternoon,” Mr. Scanlon said.

Allan J. Fromberg, a spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission, said, “We’ve never had a car sitting for weeks or months in the yard.”

The space problems started late last year, when the commission began doubling the size of its 100-person force in anticipation of the enforcement effort in the boroughs outside Manhattan that are served by livery cabs, which are not allowed to pick up street hails. In the past six months, the commission has hired 61 officers, 40 of whom are already in the field picking up illegal vehicles. By the end of the year, the commission hopes to have hired 100 new officers.

Avik Kabessa, a member of the board at the Livery Roundtable, a group representing livery drivers and chauffeurs, and a partner in Carmel Car and Limousine Service, said he remained skeptical about the effort. He said he was afraid that the commission would use the new officers and any added parking spaces to prey on livery drivers picking up unauthorized fares, rather than drivers who are not licensed at all.

“We often welcome more enforcement,” Mr. Kabessa said. “But unfortunately, instead of going after those who are truly illegal, they are going after those who have the Taxi and Limousine Commission plates. Usually they’re going after the low-hanging fruit like the livery drivers.”

Mr. Yassky said he hoped that the additional enforcement measures would keep more riders safe from all types of unlicensed drivers.

“The job will still be enormous,” he said. “But at that point, it will be manageable.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: In Crackdown on Unlicensed Taxis, City Runs Out of Room. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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