Nevada DMV police stepping up enforcement on temporary, missing, even expired plates

LAS VEGAS ( KLAS ) — You can’t miss them while driving around Las Vegas, vehicles with temporary, expired or even no plates at all. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles police force is stepping up enforcement to crack down on these drivers.

This week, the DMV Compliance Enforcement Division scoured the valley for these drivers conducting nearly 400 stops by the time 8 News Now caught up with them on Thursday morning. They brought in officers from Reno to help and give them a chance to learn in a busier area of the state.

“We’re conducting a targeted enforcement initiative in the streets of Las Vegas this week with more officers than we usually have trying to make a dent in the violators,” Chief JD Decker, of the Compliance Enforcement Division at the Nevada DMV explained. “We see swapped plates, stolen plates, no plates. We even see people who have valid registrations and just aren’t putting on the registration for some reason.”

The team of 12 officers was crisscrossing the valley getting hundreds of illegal vehicles off the road. One of the busiest areas is even the Las Vegas Strip, where they see plates from every area of the country.

From expired plates to forged temporary plates, they have seen a mix of everything in between. Each officer has collected about 25 plates in the last few days that are illegal.

“A lot of people think letting their registration lapse isn’t a big deal but that is not what we are finding in the street we are really finding people who really shouldn’t be on the road,” Decker said.

Each of these officers at the DMV police conduct about 500 traffic stops a year in addition to their other duties.

Law enforcement across the valley is trained on how to spot these plates and get them off the road.

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