Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
New York City has this cool program that lets anyone report idling commercial vehicles and get a large cut of the fines [1]. It's been in the news recently [2]. I've filed a few reports, and I found the process frustrating and error-prone. The forms are fiddly, there's way too much information that needs to be copied down from the video by hand, you have to use a third-party app to take a timestamped video and a different app to compress it before uploading, and approximately none of it can be done on your phone — the device you probably used to record your video in the first place. I built…
In plain words
Idle Reporter streamlines the process of reporting idling commercial vehicles in New York City through an iOS app. Users record videos of violations, and AI automatically extracts required information and screenshots to populate complaint forms, eliminating manual data entry. The app compresses video files and handles all steps on a smartphone, reducing what typically takes multiple apps and manual work into a five-minute mobile process. Reporters can earn a share of resulting fines through NYC's official idling violation program.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
New York City has this cool program that lets anyone report idling commercial vehicles and get a large cut of the fines [1]. It's been in the news recently [2]. I've filed a few reports, and I found the process frustrating and error-prone. The forms are fiddly, there's way too much information that needs to be copied down from the video by hand, you have to use a third-party app to take a timestamped video and a different app to compress it before uploading, and approximately none of it can be done on your phone — the device you probably used to record your video in the first place. I built Idle Reporter to make filing complaints into a five-minute process that you can do entirely from your phone. Idle Reporter uses AI to automatically extract all the required information and screenshots from the video and fill out the form for you. It compresses your video, adds the required screenshots, and uploads the whole thing to DEP. All you have to do is log in, give it a final check, and submit. The AI features cost me money to run, so I put those behind a subscription ($5.99/month, which can pay for itself after a single report). There's a one-week free trial so you can test it out. All the other features — including a fully-featured timestamp camera, which other apps charge for, and an editor for filling out the forms manually and submitting in a single step — will be free forever, as a service to the community. The app is iOS-only for now — part of this was an exercise in learning SwiftUI in my spare time. Check it out on the App Store and let me know what you think! [1]: https://www.nyc.gov/site/dep/environment/idling-citizens-air... [2]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-city-idling-law-report...
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