If you get your license and start driving, then you probably know that your car needs a license plate. Each state has slightly different laws governing license plates, and you should know about them. If you don’t follow the law, then you might face some serious consequences.

For example, Oregon drivers without a front license plate can face a $115 fine. Most states require that you have both a front and rear license plate, but not all of them have that stipulation. It’s just one of many things about license plates that you should know if you have a car and drive it often. 

Let us talk about license plate laws and why they matter. You may not think about this sort of thing often, but as a licensed driver, you should understand the basics behind this relatively simple concept.

If you put a license plate on a car you just bought, then you must contact the state and let them know the number and letters that comprise the plate’s unique appearance. You may note if you look at license plates within any particular state that you will never see two identical ones.

That’s not by accident. License plates have different letters and numbers because that way, police officers and other authority figures can easily identify cars and drivers.

Law enforcement officers use license plates to track potential criminals and to keep the streets and highways safe. If they know that someone ran down a pedestrian in an intersection and kept right on driving, then someone who spotted the killer’s license plate number may tell the police. 

They will then put out an all-points bulletin and tell the other officers in the area to be on the lookout for that car. The cops can look for vehicles matching that make and model. They will know they have the right one by looking at the license plate, though.

Modern surveillance techniques make this even easier. Many intersections have traffic cameras. These camera feeds often go directly to the local police station.

This way, a car driven by someone who committed a crime doesn’t need a human being to spot it. The cameras in a certain area can look for the criminal’s license plate. Once they spot it, they can send squad cars to that area and hopefully apprehend this person before they do anything else dangerous.

In this way, you can see how license plate laws matter. That’s hardly their only function, though.

If an individual commits a crime, and the police still feel they’re probably in the area, that’s when they will use their cameras and instruct any officers in the vicinity to look for the criminal by trying to spot the right car and license plate. However, you might also have a case where there’s a crime that took place quite some time ago, and the perpetrator got away for the moment.

Maybe you have a situation where someone got out of a van, snatched a child from a playground, and then drove away with them. It’s terrifying thinking about that kind of thing, but it happens sometimes.

If so, the police might not catch the perpetrator before they get out of the area. The trail can go cold, at least for a while.

The police can use cameras all across that state and neighboring states while they try to track down the person who committed such a horrible crime. Even if they only got a couple of digits or letters from the license plate, it’s better than nothing. 

That can start the police in that state and neighboring states down a trail that might eventually lead to this criminal’s capture and prosecution. It’s how license plates can help with cold cases as well as solve crimes that just happened.

You also have license plate laws in place because these identifying plates can help the police locate the owner of a stolen vehicle that they recover. Maybe you have a situation where some teens snatch someone’s car and take it for a joyride. They might abandon the vehicle in a public park or a gas station parking lot once they tire of its use.

The police might find the car. They can use the license plate to verify that it’s stolen property. They can then contact the owner. Finding your vehicle after someone stole it might seem like small comfort if they damaged or even totaled it, but at least you will get it back.

If someone commits a crime and then takes off in a vehicle, a witness or camera might spot their license plate, or at least some of the letters and numbers. When that happens, if they don’t catch the criminal at that point, they will at least know to look for them in the future.

If that criminal doesn’t think to switch out the plates for different ones, then the police might catch the perp if they decide they’re try to leave the country. Maybe they try to go up north through Canada or south through Mexico. The police there can stop them if they see from the bulletins that they receive that someone used this car for a robbery, drive-by shooting, or for some other crime. 

Once you think about these situations, it becomes obvious why cars need license plates and why laws must exist to govern their use. Such laws usually state that a driver must display their license plate on both the front and back of the car. They may stipulate that the driver must attach the license plate to the front of the vehicle rather than putting it in the window.  

As we mentioned, though, each state has its own distinct rules and laws about license plates, so make sure you know and follow them.