Weird Stop by LEO

[Grundy1133]

It was a fishing expedition from the beginning. Why else would they be running your plates unless they were fishing for something... Am I right?

[rotor]

Cheaper to renew online. Don't know why you were stopped.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Since most units have an MDT/laptop, many officers run license plates frequently. Perhaps yours came up on a different vehicle. That happened to me many years ago when I put Martha's plates on my car and vice-versa. Also, license plate recognition software and equipment is becoming more prevalent, but I don't know if they show the return unless the car is stolen or otherwise "wanted."

Chas.

[Flightmare]

It's fun to mess with them when you have Radio Operator plates too. Since you can have the same tags (your call sign) on multiple vehicles.

[Jusme]

It's possible, that since you went through a third party, rather than a county clerk's office, your registration renewal, didn't get entered, or it was entered incorrectly. But, more than likely, since that was the only reason you were given for being stopped, it means they ran your plates, possibly because of their age, and since it came back unverified, they made the stop. Car thieves, often steal plates from other cars, and put them on stolen ones,
Since there were two officers, my guess is that one, was in training. I don't know what the law is regarding getting new plates, but about every 5 years, my county clerk tells me I need new ones, and they provide them, for the same price as the sticker. Since you go through Tom Thumb, they may not have that option. JMHO

[RicoTX]

I would have been inclined to ask why they were running my plates to start with. I know some now have automated scanners, which I consider wrong anyway.

[oohrah]

License plates have to be replaced every 8 years, IIRC.

And I don't mind a fishing expedition. I'm not advocating a Nazi state, I'm saying you are out in public, you are under surveillance. And I pay my taxes, keep my insurance up, etc. If there is an anomaly in my official record, I want to know about it, and get it corrected. The last thing I want is a LEO encounter with a dubious lookup. The last thing I want is a LEO encounter period.

[Pawpaw]

They were definitely fishing.

A quick look at your registration sticker shows everything they said they needed. In the top left corner is your license plate number and the bottom right corner has the last 8 digits of your VIN, which is also visible just below the sticker.

[puma guy]

The tags are 8 years old and I went to the courthouse to see what was wrong. She told me nothing was wrong tags come back to the car. As I suspected they just decided to pull us over because the tags were older looking. The lady also explained there is no requirement to get new tags. As a Veteran and a taxpayer I do have an issue with pulling us over and wasting our time. The officers were nice enough but I suspected they pulled us over hoping they had a stolen car. Not really sure what they were looking for but the lady thinks maybe they typed in wrong plate info. Wife and I both have LTC she identified and wasn’t carrying. I was passenger and was carrying but did not identify or disclose I was carrying since they did not ask. They only asked the wife if she was carrying. I would rate it as a good stop but aggregating since we do not look like criminals or thugs. Not that it should matter.

You can't renew your registration if plates are outdated. I don't know how old they have to be. I see plates that have the alpha numeric sequence I had to get rid of over on a vehicle over 8 years ago. I did a couple of police ride alongs in March and both officers were constantly running plates. I was amazed how fast they could enter the data on their computer.

[orionengnr]

You can't renew your registration if plates are outdated. I don't know how old they have to be.

In my county, I was unable to renew at Tom Thumb when my plates were seven years old--had to go to the county office and get new ones.
Same with the wife's car a year later. The stated reason was that the plates fade from UV/sun.

If your car is parked outside facing North all the time...maybe. My bike is garaged at home and covered at work, so the plate looked brandy-new, so maybe they just need to give the prisoners something to do... (or do Texas counties buy our license plates from China these days?)

Different counties may be different.

[srothstein]

A quote I was told many years ago might apply here: "Never attribute to evil that which is properly explained by stupidity." They probably were not fishing or stopping the car because the plate looked old. It is much more likely that they typed the LP into the MDT and made a mistake typing. The return comes back to a different car and they stop it to check it out.

I had that happen often enough as a beginner when we first got MDTs in patrol cars that I started running the plate a second time every time it came back to something else. It did not take me many times being embarrassed for improper stops before I learned to double check things.


Just looked it up and it is called Hanlon's Razor.

[Grundy1133]

my car has the same tags on it that it's had since 2006 and i just renewed my registration last month...

[RoyGBiv]

My motorcycle and my car were required to have new plates at about 8 years, but my wife's 2009, bought new in 09, still has original plates.