OHTA.ca

Hello Everybody!

My case is a pretty 'common' one, I suppose. Nevertheless, I would like to read ideas and do some brainstorming: yesterday, after going out for dinner (about 11:00 PM ET in Oshawa) and while driving back on King Street North I noticed a police patrol following me closely. I did not attempt to speed away or anything. I simply continued my driving observing all precautions. Upon arriving at my apt. complex parking lot, the officer stepped outside and asked me for my licence, vehicle registration, and ownership. It was NOT my van, but the owner was with me. This is when it all starts to feel somehow suspicious: the van has a Saskatchewan licence plates, because both of us recently moved from that province and back to ON. We have been living in ON for a little more than a year... surprise! It's a no-brainer figuring out why we both got tickets for NO CURRENTLY VALIDATED PERMIT. The van has not been 'licence plate updated' to ON upon moving back to the province.

The issue here is NOT disputing the t$110 ticket, but to put the officer's procedure into question based on the following facts:

1) The licence plate from SK features a CONTINUOUS TERM sticker on the back and a number "30" sticker on it as well. My question is, how was it possible that the officer guessed or knew that the licence plate had expired, since it features a CONTINUOUS TERM indication on it?

2) My feeling is that the officer was short on his ticket quota, and was just 'fishing' around looking for 'rare or odd' plates to nail something to somebody. That is yet to be proven, but the way of putting the officer's role into question would be (on my end) asking the reason why he decided to check on a licence plate who was NOT from Ontario. Could be that he was just doing the province a 'favour' and weeding out for some "uneducated Westerners" in ON ways?

3) I actually questioned the officer the reason why he thought my licence was expired. He vaguely replied that it was "said on the back of the licence plate" (sic.). I told him that it said "continuous term". He just mumbled and just said that the licence showed as expired.

My feeling: targeted ticket based on xenophobic backgrounds of checking a non-ON plate. His initiative has been unfounded by local prejudice that "any" non ON licence must be verified, since it will be 100% suspicious of any illegal activity.

I am willing to pay the ticket, since I am the first person to acknowledge the mistake HOWEVER. I refuse to let go of the question with regard as to why the officer decide to check a licence which, at first sight, appeared to be illegible of any type of scrutinizing action.

Thank you! and thanks for having created this forum!

Clairee.

- when plates from outside of Ontario are checked, police still receive the information as to whether the plates are valid or not

- I don't just check a vehicles speed, but I personally check hundreds of plates a day, whatever I can see, no matter what province/state. Looking for expired plates, suspended drivers, driver's with no licence, no CVOR (commercial stuff), over weight violations, no insurance. Once a check reveals a violation the vehicle is stopped at a safe location.

Agree with above. Many officer routinely check any and all plates they come across, and such queries are perfectly lawful.

I'd strongly disagree that it was prejudice that caused the query. Possibly curiosity, more likely pure chance.

Also, there's much more efficient ways to "fish" for tickets then simply running random out of Province plates.

If the O.P./owner acquire Ontario permits and present them to the court, could they have the charge dropped (in this situation, or a similar one such as experied Ontario plates)? This was brought up in another thread recently, and as I've heard arguments going bothways, I'd be curious to hear your opinions.

We can run plates in the car. This gives us the provinces status no matter where the plate is from. No matter what the sticker says we know if it is up to date.

I run out of province plates all the time. We have a very transient population and many do not transfer their regs or keep them up to date and current.

OPS

manwithaplan wrote:If the O.P./owner acquire Ontario permits and present them to the court, could they have the charge dropped (in this situation, or a similar one such as experied Ontario plates)? .

I don't know why prosecution would drop the charge, it is an offence.

However, if the driver/owner took responsibility and has rectified the situation, maybe they could ask the prosecutor for a reduced penalty/suspended sentence etc.. so many variables (financial, length of violation, driving history, etc..) of each case that prosecution also looks at too

Thanks to everybody who has taken some time and contribute with some thoughts. Much appreciated!

Now.. I have another questions: how is it possible that a cop in ON would have had access to a licence plate information still stored within a Saskatchewan database??? Does this mean that police patrol laptops have a nationwide license plate database??? That's really ODD or difficult to believe.

Any clarifications or thoughts?

Running a Saskatchewan plate is no different then an Ontario plate, the respective Provincial database is sent the query and returns the relevant data. All Provinces share vehicle information for the most part. Most US plates can also be queried with little difficulty. None of these databases are stored on the laptop due to the sheer amount of data and impracticality of keeping them current and relevant.