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C-dub wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:17 pmWhen the ticket arrived in the mail (from code enforcement BTW) I called to tell them it was not functioning and what we were planning on doing with it. During the conversation I asked how they could tell the registration had expired since it was pointed towards the house in the driveway and had a cover on it. They told me they were walking the neighborhood checking for code violations and lifted the cover to check. I complained and they said they had the right to do that according to the code.

There are some legal complications in code enforcement that I do not think are correct. We now have a SCOTUS decision that lifting the cover on a vehicle to chek it without probable cause is a 4th Amendment violation. Police officers lifted the cover on a motorcycle parked next to a house and found the bike was stolen. When they arrested the guy next, he fought the search and won.

The part I disagree with is if the city can pass laws allowing code enforcement to violate the 4th Amendment. SCOTUS has said they are inspections and as such are reasonable and therefore not against the 4th. This covers things like stopping boats to check for safety equipment and code enforcement checking if a building is being built correctly. I disagree but seem to be in the minority on this.

Tex1961 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2020 10:10 amShe isn't hurting anyone, so why bother

I disagree on her not hurting anyone. I happen to agree that registration serves no purpose except that car registration is a tax. Included in it are several other possible taxes, such as a county road and bridge tax. The government is dependent on taxes. They set a budget based on what they expect to collect in taxes. If they know that there are (picking a number) 100,000 cars in a county, the state knows it can collect some amount based on that and the county and other taxes can also expect a certain amount. Each person driving without proper registration means the government did not collect as much as they expected to. That means they increase the registration fee to account for it and the next year, all of us who do register our vehicles pay a slightly higher tax when we do.

I think the government is bloated and could do with less taxes, but that is my opinion. I also know that the government doesn't agree with me and plans its budgets and will raise taxes to meet that budget.

By driving without proper registration she is hurting all of us that do pay our registration tax. And, in my experience, when they are playing games with tags, there is always something else going on. I have caught car thieves based on fake registration, as well as drugs and other things. And, again in my experience, they will almost never have insurance on the car without proper registration.

But now for a possible explanation of why you don't see the police do anything. It is not generally illegal to have a car parked on the street with expired or no registration. There are some places with ordinances about using the street for storage, but that is all they can do with a parked car. To do something meaningful, they need to catch the person driving. Then, if it is just a real expired tag, she gets a ticket. You would never see that. If the paper tag is a forgery or someone altered it, then it goes up in level to a higher misdemeanor or even felony, depending on the exact circumstances.

I think the officers will make a note of the car and its location and try to keep an eye out for it driving. If it helps, there are several police groups I am still in on Facebook where the officers post pictures of things like this so everyone knows to keep an eye out, especially if they saw it was a felony type forgery.