Honestly, why not? Let people take a photo of the offending vehicle, picture of the license plate and VIN number and tag the violation. Submit with a copy of your New York ID, and use that to filter out spam and nonsense reporters.
Hell, pay a bounty for submissions that result in the city collecting a fine. (You can deduct bad submissions from said bounties.)
I think it would also be weird to penalize people for reports that were ultimately un-actionable. Can you point to any government function that has a similar mechanism?
Seems like the obvious solution is: multiple photos!
> Can you point to any government function that has a similar mechanism?
https://www.motortrend.com/news/nyc-idling-fine-citizen-repo...
Why does it need to be a single photo?
> weird to penalize people for reports that were ultimately un-actionable
To the extent I suggested penalties, it's only in reducing bounties payable. That's less a penalty than recognition of costs.
Because that kind of thing leads to a lower-trust society, especially when plausibly motivated by personal financial gain