Ghost cars are a real and growing problem in our city and on our roadways. These are automobiles with illegal/falsified/fake paper plates which make them undetectable. These fake plates provide a license to steal to criminals because they are untraceable.

Bogus temporary plates are becoming the tool of choice of violent criminals. They are easy to get, easy to make, easy to steal. If a crime is committed and the perpetrators flee in a car with a fake plate, they are almost impossible to trace. 

During covid, with DMV offices closed, thousands of people applied for temporary plates for legitimate registration purposes, but Texas made it easy to quickly and easily obtain actual temporary registrations online and with few questions asked and little verification. Having caught on to this, criminals/fraudsters got busy and applied for these temporary plates and now use them to make themselves virtually invisible to authorities.

This isn't only about violent crime, though. These criminals are also making copies of legitimate paper tags and they are sold through social media for $200-$300 each to people who can't get a registration or don't want to pay for insurance or tolls. This is costing the port authority millions and it's creating a tangled web of criminal activity that takes thousands of hours to sort out. License plate readers on tollways can't tell if a paper plate is real or fake and it's time consuming for officers to research a single paper tag. One plate, for instance, may be connected to multiple summonses, complaints, 911 calls and arrests.

"Current investigations of drug-traffickers, terrorists, gang members and organized theft rings have all seen a rise in the use of these fraudulent paper tags," NBC's channel 4 in NY has reported. "Recent federal criminal investigations in Texas accused three people of creating fake dealerships who sold over half a million temporary Texas bogus tags to thousands of buyers, many who had NY addresses." So this problem is not just local.

The purpose of this petition is to start conversations with our local leaders about how to go about eliminating the temporary paper plate altogether. Thank you for supporting this grass roots effort to keep our community safe.

Additional information related to this petition: 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/houston-ground-zero-fake-temporary-license-tags-16508768.php?fbclid=IwAR1bmwApm0J5veNT-IMtc070ofMWSd1ZvslE2dLNWFC_sbLBKxZZaKH8wbk