Well first off, they do boot and impound liberally for multiple unpaid fines in addition to the usual denial of registration/license renewal for unpaid fines (t

Well first off, they do boot and impound liberally for multiple unpaid fines in addition to the usual denial of registration/license renewal for unpaid fines (though TFA says the latter changed recently but recent enough that it shouldn't have impacted the backlog of unpaid fines). Second, 500m is $25 for every person in the greater NY area. That doesn't pass the sniff test. It would be irresponsible and stupid to go off half cocked over that kind of data. I suspect that the bulk of these fines are from systemic edge cases that have piled up over the years (the article implies up to 20yr). The knee jerk jackboot move you suggested is unlikely to be appropriate here.