The point I was thinking of was whether the tag check constituted probable cause by itself. Any description you get is likely to limited. Height, weight, eye and hair color and DOB. It could be very difficult to match those characteristics when following a vehicle from behind, especially if there were other factors: bad weather, night, dark windows, drivers apparel, etc.
Now I’m sure that, if the tags turned up stolen, expired, BOLO, then that would be probable cause, but if it just says the owner of that reg. has an outstanding warrant, is the check enough for the traffic stop w/o any other evidence?
I’m also not questioning the legality of running random registration checks.
Add Wisconsin to the list. A friend of mine got pulled over becuase his tags didn’t match his car. My friend explained that he had just bought the car that day and moved the plates over to the new car and that was the end of it.
Oh, and he didn’t have any paperwork on the new car, even if we had just stolen the car and put his plates on it, we still would have gotten away.
I got pulled over several years ago for a bad plate. Turns out my wife bounced a check to the state for the plates. She never told me. I got handcuffed and thrown in jail. After she showed proof that the check was made good I got 40 hours on community service. I had to work weekends for the police dept cleaning parks, painting bleachers etc. I was real pissed at my wife. She got off free and she did it.
Like others here, I don’t understand what you mean by “dead.” If you mean expired, he doesn’t have to use anything except his eyes, because all Maryland tags have month and year expiration stickers in the upper corners. They are color coded, so cops can tell pretty easily if tags are expired. No computer or radio call needed.
Maryland cops would only have to run a tag if they wanted to find out if the car was stolen or if they were interested in the driver.
I was pulled over once because when I had gotten new tags I mistakenly put the front tag (which doesn’t have the stickers) on the back. I just showed him the rear tag with the stickers (which I hadn’t put on the front) and he let me go, saying “Put it on when you get home.”
I trust she did her service in another manner?
And California. A lovely afternoon I had in traffic court.
Right. Legal in CA.
I’ve done ridealongs with officers in California, and it was actually kind of scary riding the first time because it was just amazing how they were able to drive so fast with one hand on the wheel and the other hand doing all sorts of things, including typing in the plates on some car that just zipped by on the other side of the street. And the ones I rode with were just machines at it. 2 seconds or less was more than enough time for them to see and type in the 7 digit plates. Some of the ones I rode in would run what I would say maybe 80-90% of the plates of the cars around us that were going in the same direction? I was a teen at the time and didn’t really know what I saw on the screen, but I was surprised to see the word “warrant” pop up on so many vehicles and yet the officer didn’t pull them over. But like I said, I didn’t really know what I was seeing. And yeah, towards the wee morning hours they would often roll through a motel parking lot and just run through all the plates real quick. Looking for people on the lam, I guess.
dead=expired
In most states, expired plates can be identified by visual inspection, no need for a computer check.
Re: expired plates in Michigan, they expire on the day after your birthday, not at the end of the month (well, unless that coincides with your birthday). So strictly speaking they really have to run your plates to see if your registration has expired.
. . .and I trust handcuffs were also involved. 
This system is definitely in use in Montgomery County, Maryland. I’ve seen the driver of the vehicle, who did not appear to be a police officer, parked to issue a ticket. I’m assuming that if the system finds a stolen car or other serious offense they can call a “real” officer to handle the problem.
I have to agree with** silenus** here. If you are innocent why would voluntarily surrender your Constitutional right to be secure from unreasonable searches?
Police have asked to search my vehicle twice in my life. Both times I refused and both times they let me drive away with no hassle.
I see nothing wrong with them doing so.
Is the word “tags” a regional thing? In Michigan, nobody but nobody calls them that. We call them “plates” which really is more correct in my view.
They had been doing this for cars of minorities only and using it to harass them in ways they just did not do to whites. As I understand it now in Illinois, they have to have some reason, such as an expired tag etc. before running the plate.
Ditto in Louisiana :o Except here, it’s even easier for the police to check on this – a handy-dandy sticker on our license plates gives the expiration date of an automobile’s registration.
I’ve heard plenty of people call them tags here in MI. 
I tend to refer to the stupid renewal stickers as tags, and the metal thing to which they get affixed as plates.
Responding to the OP, sure they can. There’s nothing unconstitutional about running your info, that’s kinda why it’s on the back of your car. It’s in plain sight, if it wasn’t there, you’d get busted for that, and if it is there, it could be bogus, or the vehicle could be stolen. The plate is in plain view, so there’s no Fourth Amendment violation. Some states might have laws preventing it, but I doubt it.
This is also true in Louisiana (except the stickers are on the lower corners) … but I now wonder if not all states have such stickers on license plates?
We don’t have front and rear plates, either, FWIW. Just rear.
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I got stopped for expired plates in Vegas when I lived there. I was stunned because I’d just bought the car and put the plates on. Unfortunately, I’d put them on in reverse (front plate on the back; back on the front). :smack:
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I recently heard an oral argument before the 7th Circuit about a guy who’d been pulled over because his paper temporary tag was “frayed.” The argument wasn’t that the cops couldn’t stop him because of the tag, but that the cops should have let him go once they got an up-close look at the tags, which were in order.