Dillon Anderson, 27, said he has been driving a Ford F-150 with expired license plates for a year, and since moving to the Jefferson County portion of Fenton two months ago, he has been stopped about five times. However, Feb. 2 was the first time he received a ticket for the violation.
Anderson was one of many drivers cited for driving with an expired license plate that day as part of an areawide crackdown.
Law enforcement officers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Arnold, Byrnes Mill, Crystal City, Eureka, Festus, Herculaneum, Hillsboro and Pevely police departments participated in the license plate enforcement campaign.
When Sheriff’s Office deputies issued tickets for the expired license plates on Feb. 2, they also gave the drivers an amnesty voucher that could reduce their fines and court costs by almost 60 percent. The Sheriff’s Office will continue giving out those vouchers through Feb. 29.
“It’s a good thing they (law enforcement officers) pull over people with expired plates because that could mean there is other stuff that person is doing wrong,” said Anderson, who last received a warning about his expired license plates on Jan. 13.
“It is what they need to do with all expired plates, but you do think there are other things they could be doing.”
Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jason Sullivan was one of about 14 Jefferson County deputies focusing on license-plate enforcement during the crackdown, Sheriff Dave Marshak said.
Sullivan issued the ticket to Anderson, who said he previously was given warnings after explaining that his pickup would not pass inspection without four new tires.
“That will cost between $750 and $1,400,” he said. “I do not have that or a credit card to put that on,” he said. “It is one of those that is hard to get around to when paying for everything else.”
Sullivan, who has worked in law enforcement since1999, said he personally has seen an increase in expired license plates since 2022.
“The amount of unregistered or temporary tags that have expired by a year or two years has gone up drastically since the (COVID-19) pandemic,” he said. “There have been so many of them, we had to do something to get people into compliance.”
Most county agencies assigned additional officers to stop vehicles with expired plates on Feb. 2.
Officers from the agencies will continue to stop vehicles with expired license plates, but most will not have officers dedicated to the task.
Marshak said he reached out to the county’s other law enforcement agencies and asked them to participate in the campaign after he talked with Missouri Department of Highway Safety staff, who told him about the success of group enforcement in the Kansas City area.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented number of (license-plate) violations (in Jefferson County), and some are quite egregious,” Marshak said. “Most significant, however, is that a number of these same people are operating the vehicle with no insurance, and that costs all of us. The idea is to focus on the most egregious violations because we see tags that have expired years ago. We are not talking about days or even weeks past due because we know things happen.”
Enforcement
Together the 10 law enforcement agencies had 50 officers participating in the campaign on Feb. 2, and they stopped 656 vehicles that day.
Officers issued 356 warnings and wrote 286 tickets for expired license plates or tags and 80 tickets for insurance violations.
The officers also seized a combined 57 expired license plates or tags.
Sullivan said officers first look at the colored tag on license plates to determine if there is a potential violation.
He said red tags were issued in 2024, blue for 2025, and, unfortunately, yellow tags were used in both 2023 and for 2026.
The next thing officers look at on license plates is the first letter of the plate number. Sullivan said license plates issued in January typically have an A or a B as the first letter.
He said deputies are allowed to use discretion when issuing a ticket for expired license plates.
“Most drivers have what I would say is a reasonable explanation,” he said. “If it is their first time (being stopped) and the plate is only a month or two expired, they could have forgotten or moved and not received the notification it was due. Then I will give them a warning.
“But if I see them a month or two later, then I will give a citation for the violation.”
Participation
Arnold Police Chief Brian Carroll said his department had six additional officers on duty Feb. 2 for the campaign, and Arnold Police used federal grant money to cover salary costs for 20 hours of additional enforcement.
“I understand the financial burden on many, but individuals operating these vehicles must make it a priority to pay their taxes, obtain vehicle insurance and register their motor vehicles,” he said.
Crystal City Police Chief Chad Helms said seven officers participated in the campaign on Feb. 2, and 12 officers will focus on license-plate violations throughout the month.
“This issue has been identified as a continuous problem, and we wanted to do our part in helping address this issue with the law enforcement community,” he said.
De Soto Capt. Jeffery Wynn said his department did not have enough officers to be part of the Feb. 2 campaign, but the department will offer overtime throughout the month to increase license plate enforcement.
“I will be asking our road patrol to be concentrating on these types of violations during their normal traffic activities during the course of their normal shifts,” he said.
“I would expect officers to be looking for tags expired more than a month for this initiative.”
Hillsboro Police Capt. Darrick Curtis said his department assigned an additional officer Feb. 2.
He also said the city is offering a reduced fine for drivers who show proof of compliance on or before their court date with the reduction amount to be determined by the prosecuting attorney.
“We are doing this because at the end of the day, this is about education and compliance,” Curtis said. “There are many who believe registering is no longer necessary, or that this law is not enforced. This serves as a reminder that registering your vehicle is still a requirement in the state of Missouri.”
Pevely Police Chief Mark Glenn said up to two officers focused on license-plate registration on Feb. 2.
“I believe that by working together on this, we demonstrate to our individual communities and the county as a whole the importance of this issue,” he said.