There is, at least in theory: call 311. However what's to stop the driver from slowing the meter down before he gets inspected? There's no GPS in the meter, as far as I'm aware, so I don't believe there's a way to truly audit the fares the driver has already taken.
They should, and perhaps that's improved in recent years, but it was definitely a common problem as few as 3-4 years ago (from my experience, I've largely switched away from yellow cabs to Uber/Lyft - mostly because the price and experience are vastly more consistent)
