I've noticed a LOT of out of state license plates, and many are expired (according to their stickers) by several months and even a few by several years.

Do Texas LEO's not care about license plates expired on "out of state" vehicles?

Seems like they'd be easy tickets but not sure if Texas can / does enforce a plate that has expired in say Vermont.

Thanks for any insights & experiences.

BIGGER_HAMMER

Expired is expired. No defense the vehicle is registered in another state.

I see people speeding all day long. Citations don't stop them either.

FYI, if you live in the Harris/Fort Bend County area 30% of paper tags are bogus, too.

Most (all?) states subscribe to the reciprocity agreement governing motor vehicles.


How exactly that shakes out concerning expired out of state registration tags I do not know.  As we all know, TX motor vehicle code requires plates front and back, validated by a displayed current registration.  But I doubt TX LE issue tickets for no front plate when the vehicle is wearing current out of state tags for a state that doesn’t require a front plate.  So… tag for interest.

It's an unregistered motor vehicle offense. Since its not a TX tag expired, its not 'expired'.

Don't assume they are not active duty military, or their immediate dependent as there are some exceptions for that expiration or the sticker was simply not changed out.

I'm sure some are just lazy and don't want to pay the tax.

I thought I read it here that some agencies like Austin PD were only making stops for moving violations lately.  Partly because they don't have enough officers and partly because of policy changes (i.e. leftist DA's, etc).

So stuff like expired plates gets a pass for the most part I guess.  Honestly, around Austin I don't remember the last time I saw APD doing any kind of traffic enforcement.

I see expired registration stickers all the time in NorTX.

When I visit my son in Houston and go to the grocery store in Hispanic-dominated areas, the percentage of expired registration stickers is very large.

Cops can only do so much.  Tags, stickers, not coming to a complete stop, and other non-violent behavior is getting a pass.  It's just a matter of economics on both sides.

Or the out-of-state no longer uses stickers on plates.

When Texas did away with plate stickers, there were tens of thousands of Texas Vehicles with "expired" stickers. Texas LEOs would know that, out of state LEOs would not. Hence why I pulled all the stickers off and had clean plates, to avoid a pullover out of state. But I am OCD like that.

Pre-internet, I lived in Cali for 3 years.   Had a truck which was registered in Texas, but would never pass inspection in Cali because the cats had been cut off.  

So, I just took the expired inspection sticker off, took the registration sticker off the license plate, and drove the vehicle.   Only issue was when I returned to Texas after three years.   But, I made it to my parents house without a ticket, and then got the car registered and inspected.  

While in Cali, I was not stopped for a traffic violation, and perhaps the police that saw me on the street did not appreciate I lacked a current Texas registration or inspection.  

My auto insurer did not care that the car was not inspected or registered.