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Depending on local laws, licensed private detectives can get access to DMV data, as can insurance companies and collection/repossession agencies. Other than that, ordinary citizens can't access the database and you must go through local law enforcement if there is a need to identify particular plates.
Most of the time, people don't need to directly identify someone's plates. If you were harassed on the road for example, or perhaps some jerk was parking in your driveway, or someone seems to be stalking you and you have a picture of the plates, you should show it to the police and let them handle it.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Originally Posted by shayla2go
what he said
I do it all the time with used cars (abandoned) that have plates, and I need to find title / last registered owner. Or sometimes I want to contact the owner of a car that is illegally parked at one of my commercial properties. (Before I 'Dispose' of their car)
Don't you have any friends that are cops or private investigators?
Depending on local laws, licensed private detectives can get access to DMV data, as can insurance companies and collection/repossession agencies. Other than that, ordinary citizens can't access the database and you must go through local law enforcement if there is a need to identify particular plates.
Most of the time, people don't need to directly identify someone's plates. If you were harassed on the road for example, or perhaps some jerk was parking in your driveway, or someone seems to be stalking you and you have a picture of the plates, you should show it to the police and let them handle it.
There are many other people who have access to this info besides law enforcement. Just about anyone who works for an insurance company can access the DMV database with ease in my state.
I'm trying to find a sane and legal reason why someone would want this question answered... and nope. Just not finding it.
How about this:
Contractor does work for you....about 20k worth....you have a contract and everything in place. work is fine but after 2 months, you see that the work was done incorrectly. you're trying to get a hold of the guy, but he's avoiding you. you call the department in charge of businesses/licenses, but they say that the guy lied to you and his license to operate has expired for 2 years. the address they have on file is obsolete; you of course need an uptodate address to serve court papers for taking him to court for damages. You're out of options, until you notice that in one of the pictures you took when the work was being done, is the picture of his parked car and his license plate clearly shown. you need his address so you can serve him with court papers.
There are several valid reasons to know a particular car's owner besides stalking. I had a car in front of me whose driver I called to be a witness of another cars reckless drunk/drugged driving. Had to talk her into it, which a cop properly would have not been able to.
Cars being abandoned or illegally parked along or on your property: Don't get a car towed of a person you know. Or just forgot to put a note on it that it had engine trouble. Cars (or parts of them) being sold on craigslist: Stolen or not.
It'll make you real careful of when you know how many drivers with bad records, no insurance, no registration drive amongst you.
If there's a suspicious car parked next to your kids elementary school--what's wrong to check it out? Political correctness can kill.
Here's a government website I use to run suspicious license plates here in Hawaii. It lists other states as well in the drop down menu after the disclaimer page, but I don't know if they work.
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what he said
