LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Cars without license plates are becoming a common fixture on the streets of Las Vegas.
Channel 13 saw the issue firsthand. In just 30 minutes, our crews spotted more than a dozen cars without plates in a neighborhood near the Strip.
“I don't know how they’re getting away with it,” said Charles Sanford, a Las Vegas resident who noticed the no-plate problem, too. “There's a reason they’re riding around with no plates."
Officials with Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles say it became a big problem a few years ago, and now they’re trying to get it under control.
“There is no reason currently not to drive without a valid registration, insurance and license. It’s a public safety issue,” said Joseph Decker, chief of the compliance enforcement division with the Nevada DMV.
Decker says the problem grew in 2020 when DMVs shut down because of COVID-19 and the governor at the time relaxed the rules around vehicle registration.
“We do know that there are a lot of people that are not complying with the registration laws and we think that probably originated during the grace period during the shutdown,” Decker said.
Decker says DMV officers hand out citations in the high hundreds every year, not including stops done by other law enforcement agencies.
Officials with the DMV say the reason varies although most times, they say, it isn’t a good one.
“You can mask the fact that it’s not registered and drive with no plate or putting a fake tag on it. You can drive the car around and nobody knows it until you have an accident or get pulled over,” Decker said.
