Top law enforcement agencies reported a decline in tag frauds in Texas during a TxDMV board meeting in Austin on February 10.
During the meeting, a detective with the Travis County Constable’s Office told the board that he has seen a decline in the number of tags issued by a small group of car dealers he is investigating.
Cpl. Mike Bradburn, Travis County Constable, Precinct 3, told the board that his department used to see around 25,000 tags each week from fraudulent tag dealers, but that number has dropped to just a few hundred.
Bradburn revealed that the new rule approved in late January by the DMV board is a huge contributing factor to the decline.
The new rules allow staff to immediately shut down dealers suspected of dealing in fraudulent tags by denying them access to the system that lets them print the tags.
According to NBC 5 News, fraudsters have been able to get car dealer licenses, enabling them to turn tags into a $200 million fraudulent business.
The Chairman of the TxDMV board, Charles Bacarisse, promised to attack the issue of fraudulent tags aggressively.
“There’s been a level of frustration where we weren’t able to move forward with the kind of speed that we are now,” Bacarisse told NBC 5 News in an interview.
However, authorities warn that the problem is far from being over.
Police revealed that organized criminal groups are avoiding investigators’ attention by obtaining multiple dealer licenses to sell tags in smaller numbers.
“I personally think we are going to see a lot of low-level dealers pop up because IP addresses show they have a lot of licenses right now,” Bradburn said.