SJPD carrying out more stops for expired tags

Apr. 15—St. Joseph law enforcement is cracking down on temporary tags and expired license plates.

Drivers without properly licensed vehicles are riding all over the city, and it's causing concern for officers and local residents.

Resident Marjorie Wright said expired license plates are something she sees in her neighborhood way too often.

"I've seen a couple in my neighborhood, one was way dated way back to April of 23'," she said. "They were in a Tesla, just casually driving like it wasn't a problem, and that isn't the only one."

She said it's concerning for law-abiding citizens like her.

"It's just frustrating because some people like to live honest lives and pay our bills, and it seems like nowadays, a lot of people are just trying to get away with not being honest," she said.

Temporary tags are given to drivers when they purchase a car. After that, buyers are supposed to make a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles office within 30 days to pay the sales tax. In many cases, that trip may not happen if a new owner overextended themselves on the purchase of the vehicle.

According to St. Joseph Police Chief Paul Luster, the issue isn't going unnoticed by law enforcement, or anyone else, for that matter.

On average, officers are making up to 10 stops a day for drivers with expired or temporary tags.

"It's one of those things that's very visible to a lot of people in the community," Luster said. "If you're driving down the Belt Highway, just as a citizen, it's very easy for you to spot a temporary tag that's at least six months expired."

As a result, this has led to many traffic stops over the past year.

"Just in 2023, our officers wrote over 1,700 tickets for expired license plates and/or expired, temporary tags," Luster said. "On top of that, they wrote over 1,100 written warnings. Just averaging that out, you're looking at nearly eight-plus stops a day in St. Joseph."

However, Lusters said not everyone who gets stopped is going to get a ticket right away.

He encourages his officers to use discretion and issue warnings for the first few stops.

"There are people that just forget to register their car annually or they move and they don't get the notice and don't realize that their plates are expired," Luster said. "Or for one reason or another, they get in a bind and they can't afford to pay it for some reason. We also realize that we must prioritize everything in this business so there's going to be times where we're dealing with matters that have a higher priority than expired temporary tags."

Although, they have noticed a pattern — a pattern that some vehicles with expired tags can come with other problems, which is why they are enforcing more stops for tags.

"It's not uncommon for us to find other violations that go along with a traffic stop just depending on what the circumstances of the expired plates are," Luster said. "And it doesn't always have to be a serious criminal issue. A lot of times if you can't afford to pay the sales tax on your vehicle or your personal property tax, chances are this person may not be able to afford insurance either, which that can get very costly, for them or another driver, that they get in an accident with."

The police department wants to make sure this isn't a common issue St. Joseph drivers are facing if they are in an accident.

"I've said from day one here in St. Joseph, if it's important to the community, it's important to us," Luster said. "We're the community's police department, so this is our issue as well. It's important for us to take that enforcement action, when appropriate, make those stops and try to get that gain that compliance with the law."

Jenna Wilson can be reached at jenna.wilson@newspressnow.com.