[randcraw]

Many states (like PA) have abandoned licence tags to save a few pennies. Unless you're a cop, it's impossible to know if any vehicle's registration is up-to-date.

And most cops no longer track this stuff visually either. It's my impression that most patrol cars today have autonomous cameras installed that check every license plate in their field of view for expired registrations and outstanding warrants.

Many police cameras likely do facial recognition too. (Numerous states subscribe generously to commercial services that sell face recog with no independent certification of accuracy, which is famously terrible, like a 90% error rate.)

[BeFlatXIII]

> Many states (like PA) have abandoned licence tags to save a few pennies.

Or dropped the requirement for front plates. The best part about front plates is that they can drop off and remain at the scene of the accident (or embed themselves in the bumper) during a hit-and-run.

[willsmith72]

Not American, what's a licence tag? And why isn't the licence plate enough to check insurance/rego?

[ultrarunner]

They make you add a new sticker to the license plate with an expiration date and new color or other visual marker. This is to make it obvious whether taxes have been paid. But now they just have automatic license plate readers for that, (and can also log vehicle locations and look for warrants, etc). It isn't or wasn't enough because these systems are archaic and poorly designed (as I once found out after being pulled over at gunpoint for a DMV mistake).