80%—are prosecuted as written, the fact that there are a certain number of cases that are dismissed means that the system works for everyone." Owners can't retrieve their impounded cars unless they plead guilty and pay a fine, or until their hearing before a city administrative judge. In 2005, the TLC refused to allow alternative-fuel vehicles to be used as cabs, despite the New York City Council's vote to approve them. Cab operator Gene Freidman, who had purchased several hybrid vehicles after the council's ruling, sued the TLC in New York's Supreme Court. The City Council, "angered" by the TLC's defiance of its decision, passed a bill in June 2005 compelling the TLC to approve at least one alternative-fuel vehicle to be used as a taxicab. The TLC relented and approved six hybrid models to be used as cabs. In April 2015, the TLC posted a notice in the City Record proposing the "Licensing of For-Hire Vehicle Dispatch Applications", requiring mobile app operators to apply for approval of certain changes to any app used to arrange vehicle rides for hire, widely considered to be targeted at Uber, causing a controversy. In August 2018, the TLC stopped issuing new vehicle licenses for one year, in an attempt to "study the effects of ride-hail services in the city." A Motherboard report, using information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, confirmed rumors that at least five TLC-licensed cabs were in reality undercover New York City Police Department vehicles. TLC refused to comment, as did NYPD. Both agencies were subsequently criticized for lack of transparency and accused of using the undercover cabs in stop-and-frisk and racial profiling operations by a National Lawyers Guild Police Accountability Project member. See also Taxis of New York City New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), for hearings conducted on summonses for TLC rules and regulations violations References Notes Further reading External links New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission Taxi and Limousine Commission in the Rules of the City of New York CityAdmin, a collection of NYC administrative decisions from the Center for New York City Law Taxi and Limousine Commission 1971 establishments in New York City Law enforcement agencies of New York City