Has anyone else noticed the ridiculous amount of temporary paper plates on vehicles lately? (Houston: sale, buyer)

[mingna]

Without even addressing the link between fake paper plates and crime:

Everyone who drives without legitimate plates, paper or otherwise, is not contributing funds to maintain the state public transportation infrastructure that they use.

Everyone who drives without legitimate registration and inspection tags is doing the same.

Everyone who drives without insurance (guessing the majority of fake plate drivers) raises the insurance rates for the rest of us who do.

Those who play by the rules end up paying in one way or another (sometimes with their life) for those who don’t.

[jeffdoorgunner]

I just moved here from Missouri. Not thrilled with your DMV… but it is what it is. I applied for plates and they issued the metal ones immediately. I wanted Bronze star plates but was told I had to wait and submit a separate form. Ok fine. So two weeks later I get a paper plate in the mail saying this is NOW my plate number and to immediately display it until my actual plates arrive. Why??? I see no reason to do that until I get the actual plates.I just left my old metal ones on.. Sometimes states create their own problems. The worst part is the waste of money with redundant policy.

[Westpark Village]

In the past, paper plates have always been synonymous with brand new vehicles and that’s the way it has been until recently. We’ve all bought and sold many vehicles before and most of the time the existing license plates stay with the vehicle, you don’t need paper plates for a used car....

All these older model vehicles with paper plates are being driven by criminals plain and simple. I just saw another car today with a paper plate that had an expiration date of 9/2. Yeah those metal plates should have arrived loooong ago by now.

Without a valid license plate these people can literally get away with almost anything - considering the lack of police monitoring the streets nowadays. You get into road rage with one of them, they shoot you and run off. Even with surveillance cameras in the area there’s nothing to track down and catch the culprit other than the make model and color of the car which there can be thousands of.

You get into an accident with one of these guys, your on your own paying everything out of pocket.

You guys be careful out there.

Houston has definitely seen better days.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Westpark Village

In the past, paper plates have always been synonymous with brand new vehicles and that’s the way it has been until recently. We’ve all bought and sold many vehicles before and most of the time the existing license plates stay with the vehicle, you don’t need paper plates for a used car....

All these older model vehicles with paper plates are being driven by criminals plain and simple. I just saw another car today with a paper plate that had an expiration date of 9/2. Yeah those metal plates should have arrived loooong ago by now.

Without a valid license plate these people can literally get away with almost anything - considering the lack of police monitoring the streets nowadays. You get into road rage with one of them, they shoot you and run off. Even with surveillance cameras in the area there’s nothing to track down and catch the culprit other than the make model and color of the car which there can be thousands of.

You get into an accident with one of these guys, your on your own paying everything out of pocket.

You guys be careful out there.

Houston has definitely seen better days.

I'm not sure that's true any longer. I know lots of people keeping the plates when they sell a used car, just to make sure they don't get blamed for tickets and accidents. And, the metal plates don't always arrive on time. When my wife leases a new car 3 years ago, it took 5 months for the metal plates to arrive. I have no idea why.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by WRM20

I'm not sure that's true any longer. I know lots of people keeping the plates when they sell a used car, just to make sure they don't get blamed for tickets and accidents. And, the metal plates don't always arrive on time. When my wife leases a new car 3 years ago, it took 5 months for the metal plates to arrive. I have no idea why.

lol Of Course you would come up with some lame rebuttal, no one cares about what happened with your wife 3 years ago. We clearly have a serious situation where our civic leaders are dropping the ball, simple as that

[AstrosUniverseChamp]

City leaders have an agenda to not criminalize poverty. As a result, limited policing is done on the obvious fake paper plates for these used cars that do not appear road worthy?

I agree that the fake paper plates are likely used by criminals to some degree, but more likely they are used by people just scraping by and need the transportation to get to their jobs. Fining them and impounding their cars is heartless with so many people suffering due to the COVID restrictions put in place by our local leaders. Also, likely more people are choosing to be reliant on personal vehicles instead of public transportation due to concerns over the virus.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

I bought a car in November and didn’t end up getting my plates until around April. Ever since COVID, Texas has been catastrophically slow with plates. Mine was particularly long because there was there was an error with the title company and UPS

[mingna]

Originally Posted by AstrosUniverseChamp

City leaders have an agenda to not criminalize poverty. As a result, limited policing is done on the obvious fake paper plates for these used cars that do not appear road worthy?

I agree that the fake paper plates are likely used by criminals to some degree, but more likely they are used by people just scraping by and need the transportation to get to their jobs. Fining them and impounding their cars is heartless with so many people suffering due to the COVID restrictions put in place by our local leaders. Also, likely more people are choosing to be reliant on personal vehicles instead of public transportation due to concerns over the virus.

So, the law is be applied selectively as suits the agenda of city ‘leaders’?

What would be a crime for me, net taxpayers with something to lose, will not be for thee, select groups chosen by these same city leaders, who are paid through taxpayer dollars to serve all citizens?

Sounds like a terrible way to attempt to solve a poverty issue when it sends this egregious message of the arbitrary application of laws to suit personal agendas. Not to mention unethical.

Why should anyone bother following any laws if they see their own leaders blatantly disregarding it by selectively applying it? They don’t think the message this sends just attracts even more criminals and higher crime?

Should the good citizens of this city just accept the increase in crime stemming from criminals taking advantage of this unethical practice by our city ‘leaders’ as just another price to pay to work and live in this town?

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by usc619

lol Of Course you would come up with some lame rebuttal, no one cares about what happened with your wife 3 years ago. We clearly have a serious situation where our civic leaders are dropping the ball, simple as that

So what, you want HPD to stop every car that drives by with a paper tag? Not going to happen. Even pre-Covid, HPD seldom enforced traffic laws except when they parked an officer at a high profile location to write 200 tickets to people speeding down an overpass. HPD is understaffed compared to other large cities, but the reality of limited taxes makes it impossible to increase staffing. That won't change until the limitation on tax revenue increases is repealed.

In any case, I was trying to point out that expired paper tags are not a new thing. Have you written to your city council members and county commissioner? Or are you just whining on the internet?

Originally Posted by AstrosUniverseChamp

City leaders have an agenda to not criminalize poverty. As a result, limited policing is done on the obvious fake paper plates for these used cars that do not appear road worthy?

I agree that the fake paper plates are likely used by criminals to some degree, but more likely they are used by people just scraping by and need the transportation to get to their jobs. Fining them and impounding their cars is heartless with so many people suffering due to the COVID restrictions put in place by our local leaders. Also, likely more people are choosing to be reliant on personal vehicles instead of public transportation due to concerns over the virus.

There's a lot of truth in that statement. And, it's not just the poor. I see new high end cars with expired paper tags. Like someone else said, each dealer needs to have a supply of tags that can be issued to car buyers

[Ghost Town]

Interesting thread.
I agree, huge amount of junk cars with paper tags lately. But I remember even years ago when buying used car you would get temporary tags.
These days it's probably a combination of factors: 1) overall economy and workers affected by covid in 2020-2021; 2) semiconductor shortage and vehicle price increase -> more junk cars because of the higher prices; 3) more criminals released