I have a car, I hardly drove it for the longest time. I work from home, so if anything my wife and I would take her car. Summer 24 in the span of 2 months, I got married, took a trip, updated all my wife's vehicle paperwork, title, and insurance, and then we found out she was pregnant. In the midst of all of this, I got my renewal notice to renew by September, and I inadvertently filed it away in my "completed" drawer for vehicle stuff. Why? No idea. A lot going on in my mind. My mistake. Fast forward to spring 2025, the kid is born and eventually my aunt begins babysitting him. This means I start driving more. No sooner did I start this daily trip of picking up my kid, did I get pulled over for my tags. They were absolutely expired, again, 100% my fault, I dropped the ball. I have a clean record, never been ticketed or in an accident in the 16+ years I had been driving, but I definitely got one that day. I went home, paid the renewal, found my notice and yelled at myself. Converted it a parking fine and paid it. What struck me odd is the officer (my city), seemed almost disappointed that the only non-compliance I had was the tag alone. I am sure an expired tag stops may often lead to bigger things, but I was just an honest mistake. I took it during that hot summer day, that this officer was really bored, or he really doesnt like Dunkin Donuts. (My license plate is a reference to a donut place)
You were supposed to renew in summer 24. Spring 25 rolls around and its still expired. That will raise eyebrows. The officer wasnt bored, it was expired long enough (at least 6 month) for the officer to stop you. What makes you think he was bored or he didn't like your tags?
I know you made an honest mistake, but at the 6 month expiry mark its no longer "he was bored so he stopped me"
This happened to me a couple months ago. Bought a new car last year and completely forgot I had only gotten a prorated 1 year (i always get the 2 years) . 6 months after the expire almost to the day and I got pulled. Cop saw i was doing deliveries and was super cool about it. Gave me a verbal and even told me " you can do it on your phone and the email can prove if you get pulled over again." I still went home and didn't drive again until I got the sticker because I didn't want a delivery being late because I got pulled again. Bless officers like him. Knew I just made an honest mistake and didn't jam me up
I've seem some farm trucks that only go on the public road once in a blue moon and then only to go 10 miles to the gas station and back on a ranch road with next to 0 traffic.
Their registration is whatever year the bought the truck, or whatever year they stopped using it as a daily and started using it as a hay hauler, they probably don't have insurance either. They will probably never get caught because the odds of one of us being on that back road around the back road that detours around the back road's back road at the same time they are are next to nil.
Most active calls take priority over expired registration. The several calls holding take priority over expired registration. The population out numbers the number of officers, and while someone could pull over everyone they saw with expired registration, and never take a call for service, the sheer number of vehicles with expired registration, you'll always see them.
It could. Not going to a pending call for service could end up in a murder. I didn't do car stops to look for more, I did car stops to address the immediate issue. If, during the course of the stop new information discovered something else, I would follow up on that. Doing car stops with the intent of finding more, is a bad way to look at car stops.
Im not saying if you get a call then its that persons lucky day and you leave the stop.
Im saying not even bothering to do stops between calls for service.
And your last line is precisely what "criminal patrol" (that's literally what they call it) Ohio Highway Patrol does, but the reality is city and county cars are going to encounter more expired tags then they (Highway Patrol) will shooting radar.
It just seems like after BLM, that at least in this city, things like this are ignored as they don't want to become the next cop on the news.
Depending on the call, it could be. If there were times when there weren't calls waiting, we were expected to enforce traffic violations. I did. I did not look at every single stop as a reason to search the car. If, during the normal course of the stop there arose a reason to investigate further, I did. I do not believe in the idea that you should only stop a car for the sole reason of finding something else besides the initial traffic stop.
Now, if I was on a squad where my job was to stop illegal guns and drugs from being transported, I again am not stopping every single car for every single traffic infraction. Interdiction training has its own skill set.
I usually start stopping when they're three months expired and writing at six months expired, or if I see in our local history they've been stopped since their tag was expired I'll write em earlier
Traffic violations are officer discretion to pull over or not, ticket or not.
Non- moving violations like expired plates are going to be lower on the priority scale than other reckless or negligent driving violations, so officers may tend to decide to not stop (or at least not ticket) more often than other violations.
Calls for service and basically everything else take priority over self-initiated work (for the regular patrol beat cop, some departments have dedicated traffic units). So officers may opt to keep themselves available for calls depending on manpower and how busy their city is, and not stop minor things, or may be on their way to a call or something else, which is why you see cops not stop blatant violations sometimes.
Some people are just like that...they figure there is a far greater chance of not getting stopped than getting stopped, so they risk not updating the tag. Many figure they'll take the odds, and if they get stopped, they'll pay their ticket and move on (sometimes this bites them, because in places like my jurisdiction, if it gets too far expired we can impound it).
As a town officer, it is certainly a reason for a traffic stop, which may reveal evidence Of a more serious crime. Whether or not a summons is issued depends on various factors. How long are they out of compliance? Is the vehicle safe? What does the driver's history say?
Different places have different unwritten rules. Im not looking at tags because I have better stuff to do but if it’s a slow ass day cruise down the street and run every plate. Tags 3+ months expired is a no go.
No idea how the traffic guys and how they approach it but most of them are dicks.
Because they get off on how many citations they issue in a single shift and compete with other traffic guys. Some see who can get the most obscure never used violations.
I cited a guy for tire tread depth. -1/32 is just plain dangerous if you hit oil, water, ice, oil slick on minimal fresh rain.
Steel belt showing? Even worse!
Usually by this time, there were multiple other violations, too.
I used to work a small town, so the light call volume meant I had a lot of time to look for things. I'd keep an eye out for expired tags in particular, but in Utah you can only impound if it is more than 3 months expired, so I generally let it slide for a month or two
I had expired tags for like two years once. Technically I had paid but never got new tags because I needed a smog. Only got pulled over once and let right off. The only time I got a ticket was if some parking enforcement was citing me for something else at the same time.
Just because the sticker itself is expired doesn't necessarily mean the registration is expired.
If the actual registration isn't expired, I don't stop them.
I think Washington State made it a secondary. Something to add onto another reason to pull you over. I see expired tabs on about 1 in 20 cars on my regular drives.
I’m retired LE. The most flagrant violation of expired registration was actually a failure to register. The person had purchased the vehicle new and never registered it. The original contract and temp plate were in the car. It had been five years since the purchase!
After seeing this so much and being lazy with my desire to replace the sticker physically from my window, I turned it into an experiment.
My registration is showing expired in 09/24 on my window but I have it all registered and the sticker in my dash, cause lazy and curious. I've even been going on base and everything no one cares. I could see people doing it thinking "but they don't care". However my detective dad in the back of my head won't allow me to fully attempt it to test it, just the not putting up the new sticker. I've driven through 9 states and multiple military bases with it presented as expired🤷🏽♀️
I think it might be too unimportant or low priority.
Heh I did that, just not intentionally. Got my tags, stuck them under the visor and never thought about it again because in my mind, I'd gotten my tags. I almost made it a year, I went through a U Turn where the big local metro was doing a seatbelts, baby seats, tags, etc. enforcement thing, they got me.
When I was in college I had a 2011 Camry, was my baby, never drove it, and then I had a 94 T100, drove it to work, school, buddies, everywhere, rusted out exhaust rusted off louder than hell, I had insurance but never put plates on it.
Drove my Camry home for went break 1 month after the tags expired and got pulled over. I always figured officers saw that rusted T100 and just figured it would be too much paper work so they never bothered
I unknowingly drove around for like 9 months with expired tags until a cop friend of mine in my hometown pulled me over lol. I worked at the police station and no one noticed. I didn’t realize they were expired because I’m my state you can renew for multiple years at once. I renewed them for two years but didn’t realize the two years was up, never got notice in the mail.
I'll stop for it, and depending on how far expired it is I'll issue a citation. My thought on it is, if I have to pay for my tabs every year to drive legally, then so should everyone else.
A friend of mine is the fire captain's wife and once forgot to renew her tags for well over a year (her teenage kid finally noticed when going to get their license in the vehicle). No one ever pulled it over. It had first responder tags.
…I may or may not have forgotten to change my windshield sticker (TX) but the plates still come back good(they should I paid the registration I just haven’t gotten around to changing the sticker)
I once rented a car with 6 months expired tags. With as much time rentals spend on the road, I was a bit surprised that I was pulled over (I presume I was the first to get pulled over otherwise Enterprise would have taken care of it earlier).
It's likely more common as an additional charge when they put you over for something else. Kind of hard to see the little sticker, although the Plate Reader or an officer putting your plate into a computer would see it, in some states that still have plate stickers through color code them so expired can be identified from a distance
New York City at least, parking enforcement will sometime walk streets and look at the stickers and they will ticket you for having an expired registration or inspection
I may or may not stop someone for expired tags. Depends on how bored I am.
Same, if I see expired tags and unknown insurance status, they’re getting pulled over. Just tags, I’ll ignore to hunt for felonies.
I admittedly fucked this up myself.
I have a car, I hardly drove it for the longest time. I work from home, so if anything my wife and I would take her car. Summer 24 in the span of 2 months, I got married, took a trip, updated all my wife's vehicle paperwork, title, and insurance, and then we found out she was pregnant. In the midst of all of this, I got my renewal notice to renew by September, and I inadvertently filed it away in my "completed" drawer for vehicle stuff. Why? No idea. A lot going on in my mind. My mistake. Fast forward to spring 2025, the kid is born and eventually my aunt begins babysitting him. This means I start driving more. No sooner did I start this daily trip of picking up my kid, did I get pulled over for my tags. They were absolutely expired, again, 100% my fault, I dropped the ball. I have a clean record, never been ticketed or in an accident in the 16+ years I had been driving, but I definitely got one that day. I went home, paid the renewal, found my notice and yelled at myself. Converted it a parking fine and paid it. What struck me odd is the officer (my city), seemed almost disappointed that the only non-compliance I had was the tag alone. I am sure an expired tag stops may often lead to bigger things, but I was just an honest mistake. I took it during that hot summer day, that this officer was really bored, or he really doesnt like Dunkin Donuts. (My license plate is a reference to a donut place)
You were supposed to renew in summer 24. Spring 25 rolls around and its still expired. That will raise eyebrows. The officer wasnt bored, it was expired long enough (at least 6 month) for the officer to stop you. What makes you think he was bored or he didn't like your tags?
I know you made an honest mistake, but at the 6 month expiry mark its no longer "he was bored so he stopped me"
Please refer to the comment I replied to how they mentioned "how bored they may be". You know there is some sarcasm on here right?
This happened to me a couple months ago. Bought a new car last year and completely forgot I had only gotten a prorated 1 year (i always get the 2 years) . 6 months after the expire almost to the day and I got pulled. Cop saw i was doing deliveries and was super cool about it. Gave me a verbal and even told me " you can do it on your phone and the email can prove if you get pulled over again." I still went home and didn't drive again until I got the sticker because I didn't want a delivery being late because I got pulled again. Bless officers like him. Knew I just made an honest mistake and didn't jam me up
That's awesome
[removed]
What? That I choose not to enforce a particular crime if I have something else to worry about?
I work at a university. When walking in a parking garage, I look to look for the most expired tags. Oldest ive seen was 2007, saw it last year.
Saw 2002 in Wyoming once
I've seem some farm trucks that only go on the public road once in a blue moon and then only to go 10 miles to the gas station and back on a ranch road with next to 0 traffic.
Their registration is whatever year the bought the truck, or whatever year they stopped using it as a daily and started using it as a hay hauler, they probably don't have insurance either. They will probably never get caught because the odds of one of us being on that back road around the back road that detours around the back road's back road at the same time they are are next to nil.
Most active calls take priority over expired registration. The several calls holding take priority over expired registration. The population out numbers the number of officers, and while someone could pull over everyone they saw with expired registration, and never take a call for service, the sheer number of vehicles with expired registration, you'll always see them.
That's the problem, people get away with it from lack enforcement. That traffic stop for expired tags could also lead to warrants, drugs, guns, ect.
It could. Not going to a pending call for service could end up in a murder. I didn't do car stops to look for more, I did car stops to address the immediate issue. If, during the course of the stop new information discovered something else, I would follow up on that. Doing car stops with the intent of finding more, is a bad way to look at car stops.
Im not saying if you get a call then its that persons lucky day and you leave the stop.
Im saying not even bothering to do stops between calls for service.
And your last line is precisely what "criminal patrol" (that's literally what they call it) Ohio Highway Patrol does, but the reality is city and county cars are going to encounter more expired tags then they (Highway Patrol) will shooting radar.
It just seems like after BLM, that at least in this city, things like this are ignored as they don't want to become the next cop on the news.
Depending on the call, it could be. If there were times when there weren't calls waiting, we were expected to enforce traffic violations. I did. I did not look at every single stop as a reason to search the car. If, during the normal course of the stop there arose a reason to investigate further, I did. I do not believe in the idea that you should only stop a car for the sole reason of finding something else besides the initial traffic stop.
Now, if I was on a squad where my job was to stop illegal guns and drugs from being transported, I again am not stopping every single car for every single traffic infraction. Interdiction training has its own skill set.
I usually start stopping when they're three months expired and writing at six months expired, or if I see in our local history they've been stopped since their tag was expired I'll write em earlier
That’s a job for the highway patrol/troopers.
Covid really slowed (stopped) expired registration stops.
Most cops just haven’t started back up with it.
I won’t stop expired registration unless I’m looking for a reason to stop said vehicle for other reasons (pre-textual stop) Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996)
Ticketed and towed, while I was out of town 11 days. Saving $70 cost me $350
Also, yrs ago, a found stolen car couldn't get out of impound till I updated.
My local PD doesn’t even let officers pull people over for expired tags anymore lol
You in St. Louis? Lol
Traffic violations are officer discretion to pull over or not, ticket or not.
Non- moving violations like expired plates are going to be lower on the priority scale than other reckless or negligent driving violations, so officers may tend to decide to not stop (or at least not ticket) more often than other violations.
Calls for service and basically everything else take priority over self-initiated work (for the regular patrol beat cop, some departments have dedicated traffic units). So officers may opt to keep themselves available for calls depending on manpower and how busy their city is, and not stop minor things, or may be on their way to a call or something else, which is why you see cops not stop blatant violations sometimes.
Some people are just like that...they figure there is a far greater chance of not getting stopped than getting stopped, so they risk not updating the tag. Many figure they'll take the odds, and if they get stopped, they'll pay their ticket and move on (sometimes this bites them, because in places like my jurisdiction, if it gets too far expired we can impound it).
As a town officer, it is certainly a reason for a traffic stop, which may reveal evidence Of a more serious crime. Whether or not a summons is issued depends on various factors. How long are they out of compliance? Is the vehicle safe? What does the driver's history say?
If I have to have my tags registered/up to date then you have to. Simple as that
Also I've gotten many warrants and arrests from expired tags.
Different places have different unwritten rules. Im not looking at tags because I have better stuff to do but if it’s a slow ass day cruise down the street and run every plate. Tags 3+ months expired is a no go.
No idea how the traffic guys and how they approach it but most of them are dicks.
As a retired traffic guy, why do you say that they are dicks?????
Because they generally pile on cites for petty stuff. Not the way to win over your average citizen.
Because they get off on how many citations they issue in a single shift and compete with other traffic guys. Some see who can get the most obscure never used violations.
Ooooh can't help but notice you signed your registration in blue ink ..
Statute requires it to be black ink... Yeah...
(I think they've changed this statute in my state now, haven't looked at it in years)
Dont give the traffic guys here any extra ideas.
I do know a guy who cited someone for their tire tread depth once. Apparently the driver pissed him off lmao
I cited a guy for tire tread depth. -1/32 is just plain dangerous if you hit oil, water, ice, oil slick on minimal fresh rain. Steel belt showing? Even worse!
Usually by this time, there were multiple other violations, too.
Ah, you must live in Charlotte
I used to work a small town, so the light call volume meant I had a lot of time to look for things. I'd keep an eye out for expired tags in particular, but in Utah you can only impound if it is more than 3 months expired, so I generally let it slide for a month or two
I had expired tags for like two years once. Technically I had paid but never got new tags because I needed a smog. Only got pulled over once and let right off. The only time I got a ticket was if some parking enforcement was citing me for something else at the same time.
It depends.
Just because the sticker itself is expired doesn't necessarily mean the registration is expired. If the actual registration isn't expired, I don't stop them.
I think Washington State made it a secondary. Something to add onto another reason to pull you over. I see expired tabs on about 1 in 20 cars on my regular drives.
I’m retired LE. The most flagrant violation of expired registration was actually a failure to register. The person had purchased the vehicle new and never registered it. The original contract and temp plate were in the car. It had been five years since the purchase!
Pull some one over? What's that?
Related. How we roll out here https://youtube.com/shorts/GlmKcKer2kI?si=ZvMTPigR_bw_fmnj
After seeing this so much and being lazy with my desire to replace the sticker physically from my window, I turned it into an experiment.
My registration is showing expired in 09/24 on my window but I have it all registered and the sticker in my dash, cause lazy and curious. I've even been going on base and everything no one cares. I could see people doing it thinking "but they don't care". However my detective dad in the back of my head won't allow me to fully attempt it to test it, just the not putting up the new sticker. I've driven through 9 states and multiple military bases with it presented as expired🤷🏽♀️
I think it might be too unimportant or low priority.
Pls don't judge me lol.
Heh I did that, just not intentionally. Got my tags, stuck them under the visor and never thought about it again because in my mind, I'd gotten my tags. I almost made it a year, I went through a U Turn where the big local metro was doing a seatbelts, baby seats, tags, etc. enforcement thing, they got me.
Let it go because I DID register the vehicle.
I did it unintentionally! When I got to like 2 months left I realized and was like... hmm.
Now I received the newer one but didn't feel rushed then its Mia as of 2 weeks ago so I'm looking for it.
Glad you got away🤣
When I was in college I had a 2011 Camry, was my baby, never drove it, and then I had a 94 T100, drove it to work, school, buddies, everywhere, rusted out exhaust rusted off louder than hell, I had insurance but never put plates on it.
Drove my Camry home for went break 1 month after the tags expired and got pulled over. I always figured officers saw that rusted T100 and just figured it would be too much paper work so they never bothered
I unknowingly drove around for like 9 months with expired tags until a cop friend of mine in my hometown pulled me over lol. I worked at the police station and no one noticed. I didn’t realize they were expired because I’m my state you can renew for multiple years at once. I renewed them for two years but didn’t realize the two years was up, never got notice in the mail.
As a young adult I accidentally drove my vehicle with expired reg for half a year before someone pointed it out to me. Was never pulled over.
back in 2009 me and my buddies saw a guy who’s tags expired in 1978. We laughed so hard we cried.
I'll stop for it, and depending on how far expired it is I'll issue a citation. My thought on it is, if I have to pay for my tabs every year to drive legally, then so should everyone else.
My dad once forgot to apply the sticker for a whole year and never got pulled over. ymmv.
A friend of mine is the fire captain's wife and once forgot to renew her tags for well over a year (her teenage kid finally noticed when going to get their license in the vehicle). No one ever pulled it over. It had first responder tags.
…I may or may not have forgotten to change my windshield sticker (TX) but the plates still come back good(they should I paid the registration I just haven’t gotten around to changing the sticker)
When I did parking enforcement, the excuse someone gave was that they didn't want the sticker to be stolen.
Ok, so you rather keep getting parking tickets then?
I once rented a car with 6 months expired tags. With as much time rentals spend on the road, I was a bit surprised that I was pulled over (I presume I was the first to get pulled over otherwise Enterprise would have taken care of it earlier).
Did you know they were expired? Were you ticketed when pulled over?
Nope. Didn’t realize they were expired. Didn’t even get a warning. Once officer confirmed it was a rental, he was just as bewildered as I was.
90% of the time I’m going to a call when I see expired tags and stuff
I haven't made a traffic stop in years.
Just depends on what is happening at the time and if I need to stop them and don’t have a better reason.
It's likely more common as an additional charge when they put you over for something else. Kind of hard to see the little sticker, although the Plate Reader or an officer putting your plate into a computer would see it, in some states that still have plate stickers through color code them so expired can be identified from a distance
New York City at least, parking enforcement will sometime walk streets and look at the stickers and they will ticket you for having an expired registration or inspection
I feel like an expired tag would also lead to expired insurance which sucks for the other drivers on the road.
I don’t even pull people over for going double the speed limit let alone expired tags
You should probably do that, though. People driving double the speed limit is stuff that kills people...