I remember a time when there were basically two varieties of license plate in New Jersey - the black on yellow ones and the yellow on blue ones. And I seem to remember this was pretty much true of all states, that they had just two versions (IIRC, Michigan had a blue one and a black one).
But now there are scads of different plates in each state. In Maryland, you can get one with a great blue heron on it, or any number of “stylish” plates.
Now, I would guess that one big reason for this is that the state makes more money. (Maybe the newer plates cost more?)
But I can’t figure out why the police haven’t made a stink about this. If you’re a cop tailing a car, you need to know what state that car is from. With all the new varieties of license plates, one state can easily be mistaken for another, since differences in such details as a background image are tough to see in low light (or even at high speeds).
So what gives? I know the police wouljdn’t have the final say on something like this, but I’m sure they could have some influence. Did they protest it, but were ignored? Or did they say nothing? (Maybe it’s not a big deal.)
I believe that in Illinois, where there are license plates for, among other things, the environment, peace (or non-violence), breast-cancer research and many colleges, there is an extra charge for special plates, as there has always been for “vanity” plates. Some of the proceeds go to designated charities or funds.
I’m also pretty sure that law enforcement isn’t happy about some of the designs. On the non-violence plate, for instance, the numbers and letters are considerably smaller than on the standard plate, making them harder to read even under ideal circumstances. The only explanation I can think of, unfortunately, is government beaurocracy, and possibly lobbyists, which isn’t very satisfying.
Bingo. Got it in one. It’s a very easy way for states to make money.
I doubt this is much of a problem. I’ve never noticed that it’s difficult to read the license plate of a car in front of me. I don’t think the police ever relied heavily on the design of the plate anyway, especially, since before this recent burst of variety license plates, many license plates looked very much the same anyway.
Yes, but it was a lot easier to tell what state a plate was from - if it was black or blue, chances were it was Michigan. Now there are all these variant forms, and on many of them the state’s name is either teeny tiny or it’s obscured by a license plate cover. How in the world do law-enforcement officials determine at a glance what state the car’s from?
But why would they need to determine at a glance where the car’s from? If they’re on the lookout for a car from a particular state, they’re going to be doing more than glancing at the cars they encounter. Anyway, at a glance, you could do little more than notice whether a plate was white or dark-coloured anyway. Aside from Michigan, most states had white plates with dark lettering, so that you couldn’t really tell at a glance where they were from.
I’ve had times where I thought a plate was an Illinois plate and it turned out to be one from Wisconsin (my own state).
On my last trip to Florida I noticed that they had a LOT of different plates, I was going to call the DMV and ask how many different plates they had, but never really got around to it. Does anyone know how many they have or where I could find out?
Well, if they were chasing a speeder, for one thing. Or if they were chasing anyone who had just committed a crime. I imagine that if they were going to do a check on a car they were chasing, they’d radio into headquarters the make, model, and … ta-da… license plate number.
As for most states having white plates, I’m not so sure of that. NJ didn’t. Pennsylvania didn’t. Delaware didn’t. A lot didn’t. They had distinct colorings. Not only that, but states that bordered each other had different color schemes, too, IIRC.
From what I’ve read, the police HAVE made a stink, just not a huge one. I do believe they’ve managed to get some of the mosdt outrageous designs scrapped, like one version I saw which featured a virtual wallpaper of autumn leaves behind the numbers. The thing literally looked like camoflauge.
You could try going to the website of your state’s DMV; they might have a list (and some pictures) of all available plate designs, and also explanations about where the money goes.
For example, here are the license plates available in North Carolina. For what it’s worth, I have never heard any complaints from police in this region about the plate designs interfering with the visibility of the number on the plate itself; most complaints I have heard stem from those plastic covers some people put over their plates in hopes that it will prevent red light cameras from reading their plate number.
Here in Texas, most of the fancy plates have the design confined to the rightmost quarter of the plate, with the rest of the background in white. Plus, being from Texas (unofficial motto: Hey, We’re TEXAS!!!), a lot of them are state-themed with a Lone Star, state outline, offical flower or critter, or flag motif, making identification even easier IMO.
This may be an urban legend, but I heard that the non-violence plate in Illinois was favored (ironically) by gang members because it was thought to be less legible than the standard plate.
If you think about it, these different license plates may actually help law enforcement under some circumstances. If if a witness gave a description of a vehicle they saw a bank robber flee in, but they only remembered that there was an “f” and a “7” in the number, they’d probably also remember that the plate had a battleship or a pelican in the background.
People’s brains tend to be better equipped to remember concrete things like pictures of objects better than abstract concepts like letters and numbers.
So that’s just one more detail that could narrow the field of suspect vehicles considerably.
Here in MD, almost any organization can have a special plate done for them by the Motor Vehicles Administration (MVA). There is no reason why the Straight Dope Message Board users couldn’t have one; if they did, they could have some special insignia/device that’d be on a white plate with black letters. Across the bottom of the plate, it lists the organization’s name. Typically, they have a couple of identifying letters, one above the other and then a sequence of numbers (IIRC, 5 digits); thus, one might see SD 00001. The Sons of the Confederacy (people who had Confederate ancestors) had a plate going with an insignia that had the Stars & Bars in it, but someone complained and they stopped issuing them. One that is strangely popular is Penn State —not that there’s anyting wrong with the school; it’s just odd to see a plate marked “Maryland” on the top and “Penn State” at the bottom.
I think the aforementioned “Autumn Leaves” plate was a Virginia issue, shown among others on this page.
Near the bottom of the page, in the middle. It’s incredibly difficult to read the number on that thing - I’m amazed it ever made it past whatever screenings they have and into production.
Maybe, but I don’t think that information exists, say, in the police database. They could look up a license plate number for a particular state, but not “all license plates with a pelican on it”.
Well if it doesn’t exist in the database, it certainly should. I would think that the DMV that issued the plates would know which designs belonged to which numbers. If not, that’s just sloppy record keeping. If they pass along all the other license plate info to the police, why wouldn’t they let them know the design as well?