A North Texas police chief is seeking to permanently do away with paper license tags.
Grand Prairie Police Chief Daniel Scesney told CBS News that the problem with paper license plates has to do with their ability to be replicated easily.
The police chief demonstrated how easy it is to make these tags with Grand Prairie Police Department (GPPD) public information officer Mark Beseda.
“You can see just how simple this is,” said Scesney, per CBS News.
The police chief pointed out that the public information officer could make one using only software that is widely available to the public.
The sale of these fraudulent tags has become a multimillion-dollar criminal industry, according to NBC 5.
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has also identified the issue of replicating these tags. The agency recently had to overhaul the design of paper tags to boost security features and reduce fraud, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The agency made this move after significant pressure from lawmakers to remedy the issue.
The DMV told CBS News in a statement that it does not have the authority to change the existing process.
“Current state law requires dealers to issue a buyer’s temporary tag at the time of sale. Any change to that process would require legislative action and is not something the department could act on without statutory authority,” said the agency in the statement.
State Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Fort Worth) has drafted legislation to address fraudulent tags. This bill, if enacted, would effectively eliminate paper tags, with the DMV adopting and implementing changes no later than March 2024.
The bill has Chief Scesney’s support. According to CBS News, he has made multiple trips to the state Capitol to lobby lawmakers for its passage.
GPPD is not the only police department experiencing issues due to fraudulent license plates. The Dallas Police Department seized 42 eTags and issued 49 citations in an operation carried out on January 19, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The ongoing issue of phony tags in Dallas serves as a reminder of the unrelenting wave of property crimes and street violence that the city council has been unable to stop for years.
The DMV said that it remains committed to reducing these crimes.