So, could someone track down someone else based on just getting a licence plate number, and maybe a description of the vehicle?
Lets say I’m driving and I piss someone off to the point where they want to find me. Also, lets say that I didn’t do anything illegal or cause an accident or anything, so the police wouldn’t be interested in finding me. Would the other person have any chance finding out who I am, or where I live, or anything from getting my licence number?
I will assume that the person trying to track someone down doesn’t happen to be an FBI agent or a cop or someone else who may have more access to this kind of information than the general public would. I will also assume however, that the person would be willing to break the law to aquire the information if necessary.
**I’d just like to note that this is a totally hypothetical situation, and I haven’t pissed anyone (that I know of) off while driving, and I have no reason to believe that anyone is trying to track me down. Also, I’m not trying to track anyone down either.
The answer is, generally, no (as always different jurisdictions and countries may have different laws). The vehicle registry is not publicly accessible information. It is only available to government official (i.e. law enforcement officers) who have a legitimate cause for the information. I.e. even as an officer I am not supposed to be able to call in a person’s plate for non-policing related activities.
While driving last year, I pissed someone off and he sent me a nasty, threatning, anonymous note. This guy had connections with a local policeman. He had his buddy look up my name and address.
Well, the RMV told me the police precinct and time of license lookup. I wrote a complaint to the police chief. Apparently, the officer was repremenaded for letting a friend look up my license number.
A few years ago Texas passed a law to keep drivers license information off the internet.
At the same time a company was offering free internet access to Texas DMV and drivers license information. They probably were just starting with free access, planning to charge later.
The site was interesting. I tried it out with some cars in our downtown office’s parking garage. You enter the license plate number and their DMV database gives you the name and address of the owner. Use that information with their drivers license database to get confirm name/address and get their sex and age. Then run the address through their drivers license database to get information on anyone else with a drivers license at that address.
I few years ago, I read a book that explained how to do this.
It involved calling up the motor vehicle folks and telling them a certain story. I suppose I’d better not share it here, since it’s probably illegal. But, I think a determined person can get the info.
Well in the state of MD you can. MY GF and I had parked in someone’s land they told us to leave so we did. a few weeks later she got a phone call telling her to keep her car off the land. Gee we were only there for 30 seconds sorry pal. Also in MD if someone wants they can pay 5 bucks or something and get all of your registration and points and other stuff from the MVA unless you call and tell them NOT to allow people to get it.
It must depend on where you are. When I was living in Iowa, I had an internship with a performing arts organization that took a little travelling theater to different parks around town. This one creepy guy kept showing up at every single performance, and long story short, and it escalated to the point where I felt very uncomfortable.
The capper to the situation was that he found a set of keys and decided they must belong to me. So he wrote down my license plate number, went to the DMV, and got both my address and phone number from them. He called me three times and then came to my apartment to give them to me, even though they weren’t mine. Scared the crap out of me. I called the police, they talked to him, end of problem.
So, if you live in an area where this information is public (Des Moines, IA, for example), the average person can track anyone down, and won’t need any special connections. Where that information is not public, I imagine it still wouldn’t be so difficult, especially if you had good reason to work with the police to track the person down.
I am not making this up–one of our local civic organizations in my hometown (Lions club, Kiwanis?) issued a book that had all the county license plates listed in order, with the name of the person they were registered to.
This was like 20 years ago. My dad had one. You could look up any license plate in the county.
In California, all you have to do is give the DMV 15 bucks and the number, and they will give you the name address and phone number of the person, I have done this because someone had a load of gravel and a rock fell out and bounced up and broke my windshield. I got their insurance to pay for it.
In PA a trucker sideswiped my car and kept going. I got his LP#, and PennDOT gave me the info on the phone. We eventually tracked his trucking company down and got $2000 from his trucking company to pay for the damage.
In New York a guy rear ended me and ran, and I was directed to New York’s dept of transportation. It was more complicated, as I had to fill out several forms, but I did get the guys info. Unfortunately, I was so shook up I wrote the wrong plate number down, and got nothing.
I think the important thing to keep in mind is that you’d better have a legit reason to get this info, or you could get into trouble. It’s best to report any incidents to the police, and let them do the tracking.
In NY, and I’m sure in other states, the person being investigated is informed that a search request has been filed. Therefore, running the plate of some Ahole who cut you off for the sole purpose of going to his house and slashing his tires is not advisable.
In Louisiana, it was very easy to do. We had to get DMV data on various state officials as part of a journalism project when I was at LSU.
That was in 1992. A couple of years ago (1997-98?), I received a letter from the La DMV asking if I wanted to have my DMV information kept private. I suppose there was a law passed that required the DMV to give the option of privacy to Lousiana drivers.
