Have expired temp tags, license plates? KC area police, troopers are looking for you
Drivers with expired temporary tags and license plates in the Kansas City area would be justified in feeling like someone is watching — police and highway patrol troopers are cracking down on vehicle registration violations on Wednesday.
Consider this the sequel to another crackdown held earlier this year.
Kansas City police, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Missouri Department of Revenue, are looking for drivers with expired plates and temporary tags on the south side of Kansas City, said Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department.
Officers may seize the temporary tags or license plates and issue a citation.
Gonzalez said the traffic enforcement effort is being done at the request of the department’s south patrol division.
A similar vehicle registration effort was held in Kansas City’s Northland over one weekend in January.
In that effort, KC police, along with the Gladstone and Platte Woods police, the Platte County and Clay County sheriff, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Missouri Department of Revenue confiscated 63 expired temp tags, 23 license expired plates and issued 271 citations in eight hours, according to a post on Facebook.
The post teased: “To be continued . . .”
“One of the largest complaints we as an agency receive from the public is registration violations,” said Cpl. Justin Ewing, a spokesman for the highway patrol’s Troop A, which includes the Kansas City area.
Ewing said that a metal license plate is typically seized if it is so out of date that it is no longer on file or if it is displayed on a vehicle it doesn’t belong to. The plates are then returned to the Department of Revenue.
Temporary tags are valid for only 30 days. Ewing said law enforcement typically seizes tags that have been expired for a long time or that have been fraudulently changed to appear to be valid.
Law enforcement officers will not be seizing the tag or license plate of everyone they pull over.
“There’s specific situations where those tags are being taken,” Ewing said.
If a driver is pulled over for an expired tag, they could be cited for a registration violation, which carries a fine of $50.50. This is a non-moving violation, so it doesn’t affect points on their driver’s license. It is a primary violation, which means law enforcement drivers can be pulled over solely for that violation.
If officers discover other violations during the stop, such as speeding, not wearing a seat belt, or not having insurance, they could cite the driver.
Last month, Independence police did a two-day license plate enforcement operation that resulted in 260 car stops and 281 citations issued for registration and other violations, said Officer Kelly Rupert, a spokeswoman for the police department.
