Why are out of state License plates suspicious to police offices?

[PKPunk]

So a few months back a friend of mine moved to California, S.F. bay area from Illinois. One night we're driving to a friends house and we got pulled over and the cop basically ran his vehicle plates and his drivers license number and then asks my friend if he's moving to cali, my friend replied yes and cop said he needs to go to dmv and register his vehicle. And that was the end of the incident. I was sitting there thinking WTF was the point of that and my friend was like "this is the 3rd time that's happened to me in a week". Needless to say he quickly got his car registered here in California. What got me thinking about this again was that I was driving today and I was next to this car that was from out of state. I didn't think anything was suspicious about them...driving safely and at the speed limit. After a few miles a cop gets on the road, he notices their plates and starts tailing them and then after a few minutes he pulls them over. So I'm wondering what?s so suspicious about driving a out of state car? Anyone experience something similar?

 

[SchrodingersDog]

They might as well get their income from out of state, less complaints from the locals.

 

[MrCodeDude]

People give their old cars to charity, charities sell them at auctions, people buy cars for cheap prices, take them to mexico, sell them for profit money. Mexicans use car to immigrate illegally into California.

If he just registered his plates at the DMV, he wouldn't have been pulled over.

 

[cmv]

Originally posted by: SchrodingersDog
They might as well get their income from out of state, less complaints from the locals.

:thumbsup:

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

the know an out of state visitor is not likely to oppse the ticket in court

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: PKPunk
So a few months back a friend of mine moved to California, S.F. bay area from Illinois. One night we're driving to a friends house and we got pulled over and the cop basically ran his vehicle plates and his drivers license number and then asks my friend if he's moving to cali, my friend replied yes and cop said he needs to go to dmv and register his vehicle. And that was the end of the incident. I was sitting there thinking WTF was the point of that and my friend was like "this is the 3rd time that's happened to me in a week". Needless to say he quickly got his car registered here in California. What got me thinking about this again was that I was driving today and I was next to this car that was from out of state. I didn't think anything was suspicious about them...driving safely and at the speed limit. After a few miles a cop gets on the road, he notices their plates and starts tailing them and then after a few minutes he pulls them over. So I'm wondering what?s so suspicious about driving a out of state car? Anyone experience something similar?

You only have 10 days from entering the state (CA) to register the vehicle here. It's a major source of revenue, and it's highly enforced. It's very common for people to move here and not register locally until their current tags expire, only way to enforce it is to stop and check.

Bill

 

[MidasKnight]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
the know an out of state visitor is not likely to oppse the ticket in court

And that's the main reason right there.
:disgust:

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: PKPunk
So a few months back a friend of mine moved to California, S.F. bay area from Illinois. One night we're driving to a friends house and we got pulled over and the cop basically ran his vehicle plates and his drivers license number and then asks my friend if he's moving to cali, my friend replied yes and cop said he needs to go to dmv and register his vehicle. And that was the end of the incident. I was sitting there thinking WTF was the point of that and my friend was like "this is the 3rd time that's happened to me in a week". Needless to say he quickly got his car registered here in California. What got me thinking about this again was that I was driving today and I was next to this car that was from out of state. I didn't think anything was suspicious about them...driving safely and at the speed limit. After a few miles a cop gets on the road, he notices their plates and starts tailing them and then after a few minutes he pulls them over. So I'm wondering what?s so suspicious about driving a out of state car? Anyone experience something similar?

You only have 10 days from entering the state (CA) to register the vehicle here. It's a major source of revenue, and it's highly enforced. It's very common for people to move here and not register locally until their current tags expire, only way to enforce it is to stop and check.

Bill

:thumbsup: That's what I was about to say.

 

[jlee]

I was under the impression that probable cause was required in order to detain/pull someone over, and that simply running a tag is insufficient grounds. Maybe Florida is different..?

 

[Bv3]

Originally posted by: CadetLee
I was under the impression that probable cause was required in order to detain/pull someone over, and that simply running a tag is insufficient grounds. Maybe Florida is different..?

Yeah, but the cop can just follow you until you do something to give him probable cause.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Bv3

Originally posted by: CadetLee
I was under the impression that probable cause was required in order to detain/pull someone over, and that simply running a tag is insufficient grounds. Maybe Florida is different..?

Yeah, but the cop can just follow you until you do something to give him probable cause.

Very true.

 

[PKPunk]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: PKPunk
So a few months back a friend of mine moved to California, S.F. bay area from Illinois. One night we're driving to a friends house and we got pulled over and the cop basically ran his vehicle plates and his drivers license number and then asks my friend if he's moving to cali, my friend replied yes and cop said he needs to go to dmv and register his vehicle. And that was the end of the incident. I was sitting there thinking WTF was the point of that and my friend was like "this is the 3rd time that's happened to me in a week". Needless to say he quickly got his car registered here in California. What got me thinking about this again was that I was driving today and I was next to this car that was from out of state. I didn't think anything was suspicious about them...driving safely and at the speed limit. After a few miles a cop gets on the road, he notices their plates and starts tailing them and then after a few minutes he pulls them over. So I'm wondering what?s so suspicious about driving a out of state car? Anyone experience something similar?

You only have 10 days from entering the state (CA) to register the vehicle here. It's a major source of revenue, and it's highly enforced. It's very common for people to move here and not register locally until their current tags expire, only way to enforce it is to stop and check.

Bill

Oh I didn't know that, I kept wondering why people were getting pulled over so much. I guess, that's sort of a hassle for them then to have pull people over to give them a warning. When my friend got pulled over with me the cop didn't tell him about the time limit he just said get it registered.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: CadetLee

Originally posted by: Bv3

Originally posted by: CadetLee
I was under the impression that probable cause was required in order to detain/pull someone over, and that simply running a tag is insufficient grounds. Maybe Florida is different..?

Yeah, but the cop can just follow you until you do something to give him probable cause.

Very true.

Or they can just make it up, like the times I got pulled over for driving too close to the yellow line.