On April 26, Texas lawmakers started what will be a series of hearings to put an end to the sale of fraudulent paper tags for vehicles. The first hearing was held by the House Transportation Committee.
According to NBC 5 News, State Senator Paul Bettencourt stated paper tags should be completely done away with to address this problem.
Bettencourt noted that one issue is how easily replicable the current Texas tags are. According to him, the DMV should move away from paper tags entirely to reduce criminal activity.
Criminals have been exploiting loopholes in the Texas DMV’s security to obtain dealer licenses and print fraudulent tags to sell. Tags are often put on vehicles later used to commit crimes across the state. KHOU reported that crimes involving paper tags have increased 300% over the last six years.
Previously reported by The Dallas Express, Richard Sanchez, special agent in charge at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said that the use of fraudulent paper tags to undermine border security has been occurring for some time.
According to a report from NBC 5 Investigates, these vehicles, called “ghost cars,” have been used in several crimes, including drive-by shootings.
Bettencourt told NBC 5 that the DMV had not done enough to stop the production of illegal tags initially. However, he said the agency is now making progress on addressing the problem since its former director resigned, and it began targeting small dealers that sell the tags.
The DMV is looking for ways to cut out the loopholes in background checks that allow criminals to get dealer licenses.
“The only thing that’s driving through these loopholes are Mack trucks of money for organized crime, and that’s why it’s got to be stopped now,” Bettencourt said.
According to ABC 13, around 1.8 million cars in Texas currently have illegal paper tags. Each year, the state loses about $125 million in vehicle registration fees.
Judge Lina Hidalgo and commissioner Adrian Garcia in Harris County held a press conference on April 26 to discuss new reports on revenue loss caused by these fraudulent tags.
“This is money that could have gone to improving our mobility, improving our road rage, improving our drainage, improving our community, supporting law enforcement, but that money is lost,” Garcia said.
According to Harris County Toll Road Authority officers, the paper tags on cars they pull over are often fake.
Sergeant Alex Gonzalez told ABC 13, “About two weeks ago, we actually stopped a Dodge Challenger that actually had a fictitious [license plate]. The person who stole this Challenger actually put a hard plate on there because he knew on the toll road we were pulling people over for fictitious [paper] tags.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, law enforcement officials discussed what changes they require to address this problem, such as reinstating special police units specifically to investigate paper tags. According to NBC 5, funding for these units was cut in 2017. Officials are also asking for more thorough background checks for dealers and more severe punishments for fraudulent activities.
While the Texas House and Senate are holding multiple hearings on the issue, legislation cannot be acted upon until 2023, when the legislature is back in session. Additional hearings will be held by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in the upcoming weeks.