I seem to recall an attempt at a Dopefest in Princeton some years ago. I don’t remember if it didn’t happen or if I just couldn’t make it.
It may be that the car would not be towed to an impound lot, but to the place that the owner of the car directed, like home. In that case, it’s just a matter of saving her the tow charge.
I went around without a front license on my car for years. Then this happened, so I put one on.
Weird. Do NJ plates have stickers that say the month / year, and maybe you just forgot to apply the updated stickers? Otherwise, why did he think the registration was outdated and pull you over in the first place?
Re 2 plates: Virginia is a 2-plate state (I grew up in PA, and lived in NC for years; both are 1-plate states). Everyone around here has both front and back plates.
We were in a head-on collision on our way to a restaurant (it was a very, very memorable 10th anniversary for us). The front bumper was messed up, and the license plate was crumbled and had fallen off - so we picked it up and tossed it into the car.
The police officer writing thing up looked at our car and demanded, rather nastily I thought, “Where’s your front plate?” (I think he was looking for some excuse to cite us for something in addition to the kids who caused the accident). We showed him the mangled plate in the car and he dropped that angle.
Nope. We had the stickers for a while, but we haven’t had to put expiration stickers on plates in years.
The only way that he could have known that I could think of (one can keep renewing registration even with expired inspection) is that Trenton may have automatic license plate readers.
i was pulled over for no registration recently. I have no idea if the cop had a body camera. I didn’t think it was safe to pull over when he first turned on the lights, so he was kind of anxious when he finally walked to my window and asked whey I hadn’t pulled over sooner. And when he ran my license and confirmed that the car belonged to me, and it was just a middle-aged lady driving her own car that she’d neglected to re-register, and not something worse, his relief was palpable.
He wrote up a ticket, and told me that if I challenged it it would be thrown out. (I didn’t, because I was at fault.)
He told me he wasn’t supposed to let me drive away without registration, but if I re-registered on-line with my phone, he would consider it good enough. So I did that, parked on the side of the road.
I had a car full of crap, because I’d been helping a friend empty out the house he was selling. Including some open bottles of liquor that I was SO glad I’d taken the precaution of hiding under other crap. (mostly plants dug from his garden.)
Anyhow, I was really glad that I was stopped by officer friendly, and not by someone who was looking for trouble.
Did he tell you why it would be thrown out? Sometimes cops tell you something similar when it is registered and you just forgot to carry paperwork, but in this case the vehicle wasn’t re-registered.
The judge would throw it out presumably for a good reason. You just felt a moral duty to pay it? 
I assumed it was one of those “if the cop doesn’t show up to testify you win by default” things. I didn’t ask. But we actually were guilty, and honestly, it was easier for me to pay the fine than to show up in person to a hearing.
Wow, our experiences are completely different! I’ve been driving in NJ since 1979, and only once have I been pulled over for something that was not a valid moving violation (tail light was out, no ticket issued, and I was a teenager at the time).
Count me as one who disagrees. In my neck of the woods, I believe the vast majority of NJ vehicles have front plates.
I’ll get it started. Just ventured out into the parking lot of my building and checked out a few rows of cars. Of the 56 cars with NJ tags that I checked before I gave up, only two had no front plate, and the ones that didn’t DID have the holes drilled.
This might account for our vastly different experiences.
Did you check if those two cars had temporary plates on the back? I wouldn’t count those, as it’s not a failure to display a front plate.
Yep, there was no temp tag where the rear license plate would be, or in the back window. So I think those two might have actually been scofflaws.
I can’t find a post from yesterday about tags; hopefully poster will see this.
Nope, NJ does not have renewal stickers on plates (for at least as long I’ve been here – 11 years).
We have an inspection sticker on the windshield, but it has nothing to do with registration. The due dates for reg and inspection don’t, in my case, ever synch up. This is the main reason my reg lapses. In other states I’ve lived these have the same expiration dates and I’ve not got the hang of it yet.
Because I’ve never been pulled over for a moving violation, just registration, it seems that cops must be running plates randomly, looking for a hit. It’s possible my track stickers and tow straps catch their attention, but again I’ve never had a speeding ticket, etc. My cars aren’t modded, but I have heard stories about guys pulled over for suspected mods on their cars (cold air intake, catalytical-exhaust trickery, etc).
I forgot to note in my OP that my left blinker was out. I knew this and had ordered a bulb. Because I was pulled over in the midst of a left turn I assumed it was the blinker, but they didn’t notice it wasn’t working.
The Motor Vehicle Commission sends out renewal notices a couple months in advance. As long as the address on your registration matches where you live, you should be getting them.