MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Law enforcement in Tennessee are seeing a growing trend in fake license plates. Instead of going to the clerk’s office, some are ordering or photocopying fraudulent plates.
While fake license plates make it harder for law enforcement to conduct investigation, members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol are also finding the plates lead to bigger crimes.
“Since January, since we started using the blue tags in Tennessee is people are going online — ordering the fake blue tags for the vehicle and actual metal plate that’s a false tag for the vehicle,” lieutenant Ashley McCarver of the Tennessee Highway Patrol said.
McCarvey said fake license plates are a growing problem even when it comes down to those temporary plates.
“Some people are just going on the computer and changing them. Some people are printing older ones and just changing the dates,” McCarvey said. “Some of the biggest differences is just the overall color. The overall color of it stands out. The fake tags are brighter.”
Troopers said they have increased their presence in high crime areas making at least 800 stops a week in Shelby County.
“The trend that we’re seeing with a lot of fraudulent tags is either it’s one extreme or the other. Some extremes are the person bought the vehicle from someone else and didn’t realize that the tag was fraudulent,” McCarvey said. “On the other side of it, it’s something that’s done on purpose because they wanted to hide the vehicle to commit other crimes like drug crimes and gun crimes.”
That is where there is a challenge.
“We are at the end of the road on the investigation. With the fraudulent tag, we can’t run the person’s information,” McCarvey said. “It’s an easy way for them to get away and not be detected by any license plate readers.”
In response, Tennessee Highway Patrol is recruiting 22 more troopers for Shelby County and working with other law enforcement to crack down on fraudulent plates.
“We try to track if they’re coming from the same car dealership and try to turn it over to our investigators and see if a bigger investigation is needed,” McCarvey said. “Keeping up with the technology and stuff is definitely a portion of law enforcement. We try to do our best with having criminal investigators try and keep up with the latest trends.”
Tennessee Highway Patrol said having fraudulent plates is a felony charge. The sentence varies depending on the county.