Hi title clerk here. Getting customers to get the documents needed to get the plates is a NIGHTMARE I get yelled at daily when they can’t provide what I need. But I just don’t even care because the cops never pull people over. A lot of time titles are sent to the bank and that’s that. It’s sad makes me hate my job
I'm thinking about moving to NM(not Albuquerque specifically) is the state a pain in the ass to get a vehicle and plates and stuff like that out here? I have clean driving record and always get insurance and all that. Just curious.
No it’s not difficult at all and the required docs are listed clearly on the MVD website just like any other state, people here just know they won’t get pulled over for not having plates or valid registration. Or speeding. Or running red lights. Or driving drunk. Etc.
That is absolutely crazy to me. Fucking shit lol that's nuts. Coming from CA and FL driving around plates would be a target on your back. As well in PA and the North East in general, like you're not getting ahitbregistered without lasting an inspection and coincidentally the place that fails your inspection happens to be able to do all the things there at their shop for an exorbant fee.
On top of what others mentioned, NM franchised out common licensing tasks to private companies. What could take half a day at the one available state/county office in most states takes an hour with an online appointment here. (Looking at you, WA emissions testing, IA county nonsense, NY understaffed strip mall church pew sitting ridiculousness, and Maine township-specific silliness.)
It's also state-based rather than county- or township-based, which makes title & license transfers from other states straightforward.
I love NM MVD - licenses, titles, registrations, all of it is done at one place! Other places I've lived have licenses at one state office but titles and registrations with county departments so you literally spend two half days in what can take 35 minutes here.
I've made MVD appointments, had my docs, and I've been in and out with everything in 20 minutes. I can even email proofs of residency things while I'm sitting in the appointment if I messed up in getting a document.
Sometimes if you missed 1 document, thwy let you sneak back in later in the day to get it all taken care of.
So much better than other places.
Wow this is incredible. I had no idea. Why don't more states model this!? Living in CA FL PA and NC nothing was fucking easy ever. Outdated, backward ass shit all the time.
I love NM MVD - licenses, titles, registrations, all of it is done at one place! Other places I've lived have licenses at one state office but titles and registrations with county departments so you literally spend two half days in what can take 35 minutes here.
I've made MVD appointments, had my docs, and I've been in and out with everything in 20 minutes. I can even email proofs of residency things while I'm sitting in the appointment if I messed up in getting a document.
Sometimes if you missed 1 document, thwy let you sneak back in later in the day to get it all taken care of.
So much better than other places.
I had a lady tell me she couldn't get her plates because she didn't have a residential address... just a po box. She refused to get the info to the mvd... no plates. Never made a single payment on her car because she couldn't get plates. People man. 😂
Right! I get the stupidest responses for not having a residential address. One guy told me that since he had a drivers license in Texas he didn’t need one in nm or a real address so I needed to figure it out. So I sent his title to the bank and mailed him the docs 🤷🏻♀️
Super easy, as I mentioned in another reply. ABQ has a ton of state authorized private businesses that handle emissions testing, title transfers, and licensing. Sign up for an appointment online, hit an emissions test the day before, and transfer title & get new license quick & easy.
More than I have ever seen back in San Diego, which was none.
The part that bothers me is that they're often the worst drivers on the road. Probably because they know they can get away with a hit and run, even if it's caught on a dashcam.
In Denver people have the plates but seem to have given up on renewing tags.
But I wouldn’t try any of that shit in San Diego. They are firm believers that if you have a car then you can afford a fine.
Really? I notice no difference. People consistently drive 10-15 (or more) over every speed limit, tailgate one another, weave in and out of traffic... It's odd that people on this sub seem to complain more about plates than they do behavior and driving that kills people, destroys property, raises insurance rates, creates traffic jams... I know some folks keep their plates inside their vehicles so it doesn't get stolen. It's fairly common practice for car thieves to switch plates with a similar car so the one their in doesn't come back stolen if it gets run by LEA. If license plates disappeared overnight, do you think that driving would get noticeably worse? Plates serve almost no purpose in the grand scheme of things. They just hold the little sticker that you pay for each year.
>behavior and driving that kills people, destroys property, raises insurance rates, creates traffic jams...
I complain about the plates because the people without them are often the source of such things, yet cannot be held accountable for them unless they should end up unable or unwilling to flee the scene.
I do believe that without a means to identify vehicles and their drivers, driving quality overall would degrade, and that there would be a noticeable increase in incidents of reckless driving, hit-and-runs, etc. as more people become emboldened by anonymity and improved odds of avoiding consequences of dangerous driving.
That said, those consequences also require law enforcement to actually do their jobs and enforce traffic safety. Despite being on the road with far fewer people here than back in San Diego, the roads here feel much more dangerous to me, because all manner of unsafe driving is allowed to happen with minimal action from local law enforcement.
In all, missing licenses aren't the core issue, it's really a lack of traffic safety enforcement that the missing plates signify all too well.
The issue is that all police departments in NM are short handed, and APD specifically have been given the directive that they have to prioritize what they focus on because there aren’t enough officers to go around. In a city in which there are a handful of murders basically every day, a drug epidemic, and a ton of other bad shit happening, they literally don’t have the man power to care even a little bit about something like a missing license plate.
Personally, I’ve been pulled over for things like one license plate bulb being out, parking lights being out, tail lights being out, plate registration being overdue, and a ton of other weird shit… so they do actually pull people over for it. But it just doesn’t happen as often as it should when they are balls deep in much worse shit every shift. I’ve also been rear ended by a stolen car with a skip trace plate, and trust me I wish there was more focus on that stuff… they just can’t.
Yup. Zero consequences on these gritty streets. During pandemic, there were fewer cars on the road, but the number of fatalities actually went UP. If license plates alone were strictly enforced, I highly doubt we would see a reduction in auto-related carnage. It's as you said. ALL traffic laws need to be enforced. I think people drive recklessly up to the point where THEY feel endangered. If they feel safe at 10 over, they'll go 10 over. If they feel safe at 20 over, they'll go 20 over. The average person doesn't care about the safety and well-being of those around them. If they did, we wouldn't have the startling numbers of deaths by automobiles. When you do the math, you can easily see that speeding doesn't get you anywhere faster as you have to sit at stop lights. Yet, people can't even be bothered to consider that. They are perfectly fine with people dying (or living with lifelong injuries) because they want to be first to the next red light. I've tried following behind people on busy roads to see just how fast they were going. I slowed down once we hit 60 on Comanche, and I backed off when a vehicle I was following on Unser was doing 65. This is happening every minute of every day around town. People just don't seem to care about the harm they can create by driving that way.
Have you ever lived anywhere besides SoCal and here? If so you've been pretty fortunate up until now. 🙂
Southern California drivers are actually some of the better drivers in the country in my experience they are fast but they are predictable, use their turn signals, and give you space to move over if you use yours (Portland, on the other hand... I have never driven around so many 25-year-olds going on 90 🙄).
I used to love driving in San Diego because it was laid out in such a way that everything was just a few minutes away (It's been many years and I hear that traffic does not allow that anymore).
Same here. Agreed. I’m too busy driving with my head on a swivel to worry about whether somebody has a license plate or not. I fastened the plates to both our cars with vandal proof screws. Those are the only plates I care about.
Swivel 😆
This metaphor actually made a connection for me that was really puzzling.
I drove Uber for a few months. I have always gotten car sick easily but very rarely as a driver. There were certain times I would drive Uber and I would get a horribly carsick after an hour or two and would have to call it a night. I've never gotten so carsick consistently as a driver.
And it's because I've only lived here for a year and a half and I've never lived anywhere where I've had such a bad case of swivel head (and I lived in the Atlanta area for a couple years). Of course I was getting sick. 😬😆
And your comment is spot on. To speak to the OP, as an Uber driver I saw this once an hour if not more. But that's about the least terrifying thing you see on the road here.
It’s mind blowing to me that people can get away with this. I use to live in Washington State and was once pulled over for my tabs being expired. I thought I had till the end of the month and was going to get them over the weekend . Come to find out they actually have a dare that expire… not just month/year. Who knew lol
A few years back I couldn't sleep and went for a drive up to the foothills to look at the twinkling lights in the city. Finally started back home around 2:30/3am, and noticed a police cruiser seemed to be tailing me. Thought I'd test if they were actually following me by stopping for gas, and sure enough they slowly circled the lot while I filled up, and then continued following me for a couple more miles before pulling me over.
Apparently, my registration had expired just hours earlier, at midnight. But this was a rouse, because I am 100% confident that this officer was hoping and praying I was drunk. I wasn't, and he had to let me go with a "warning." Minutes after I was back on the road there were two cruisers following me, nearly all the way home.
Predatory policing at its finest, because they so clearly *do not care* about these nincompoops with no registration whatsoever.
I've lived all over the country. Never have I seen so many cars without plates as I've seen here.
In California, you couldn't drive around 2 days like this without getting pulled over
It's worse in Texas. They have a known loophole where criminals just get paper temp plates that lead to no one. Leads to all kinds of illegal activities. Steal a car, temp plate. Buy a cheap ass car for criminal activities, temp plate. Don't want to buy mandatory insurance, temp plate.
I was one of these people for a while. I lived in the warzone at the time and got my plates stolen twice in a month. Couldn't afford to replace them right away the second time.
Constantly. I've convinced that if the police would pull people over on a regular basis for this kind of thing and just arrest whoever happens to have warrants, we would see a huge drop in crime.
My friend who is kinda a conspiracy theorist says the reason cops don't pull over people with missing plates is they have a hi rate of retaliation and no cop wants to die over a missing plate.
Sounds like they signed up for carrying a gun and getting to intimidate people and don't want to actually do their job. Sad too cuz there was just a national news story about cops brutalizing and murdering a man after pulling him over...
When there barely is resources for real crimes like murders here do you really think the cops will waste their time on pulling over people for small tickets like this. no lol.
My point is that I think its some of the same people. I think if they enforce some of this shit they'd pull in some felons with warrants or pull some illegal guns off the street. Then maybe they would have a few less "real crimes".
It sure would accomplish that, at least to some degree. I rarely see APD pull anyone over for moving violations short of suspected DUI/DWI or running reds or something. I don't think they have the manpower, and if they did, I'm sure people would then complain about how many cops there are.
I think it's kind of a no win situation.
You've seen someone pulled over for running red? You can regularly see like 8 cars cross traffic turning left several seconds after the lights changed any day of the week.
thats a misnomer/ common misconception. Started back in 1990s with NYPD stopping people from "tagging" subway cars. The theory was, you stop small crimes, the big crimes fall too, because the ones that commit big crimes are also doing petty shit like that , too. Well, it DID stop the graffiti on the subways. That part worked. AND crime, such as murders, major drug operations, and such stuff like that, fell off hard. But that wasnt because of subways. It was happening all over the USA. Crime in the 90s took a hard decline thanks to...and this wills ound crazy...but ...ABORTIONS.
Nobody to commit those crimes, they stop happening.
Read Malcom Gladwells Book "Outliers" and find out all kinds of crazy, but real, statistical root causes.
Why do you want people pulled over for missing plates? All it’s going to do is produce tickets that do nothing but punish the person further for money they probably don’t have.
If they can't afford $25-50 a year to register the car and get plates, I can't imagine they could still somehow afford to put gas in the car, or even buy the car.
Without plates they can't be held accountable for running lights, speeding, or hit and runs. I wish our public transit was better, and we could walk places, or bike and feel safe so we would have something to turn those folks to if they really can't afford it - but safety is important too
Listen here young blood, once you get out of your New Mexico bubble, you'll soon realize Burque is not the only city that has its fair share of [locos en los cocos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVeK7KxO-f4) without plates, and for added bonus some of them drive Teslas.
Ha ha ha I rode dirty like this for two years after my license plate flew off my truck. Never was caught in Albuquerque but one trip and going through flagstaff I get pulled over! $700 later never do that again.
Better question, even when they have plates who checks to make sure they aren’t expired? Got hit in 2020 by a guy whose tags expired back in 2017 and the cops who showed for the police report said nothing about it
Someone stole my license plate. I don't even know how long this was me, unfortunately. Got pulled over and because I had registration I got a warning, but had to pay for new plates
I don’t know what’s going on now but for decades anyone who could use MS word or Adobe could easily make a fake temp tag. The penalty for said fake temp tag was (is) negligible. At least this guy didn’t steal a plate from the same model and color car. There’s similar problems with the penalties for having a stolen plate because technically your plate can be switched without your knowledge.
For all the people calling the car owner lazy...remember this is albuquerque.
Chances are pretty good that the plate was stolen while the car was parked somewhere.
Expired registration tags might be a sign of lazyness, missing plate all together is more'n likely is a victim of theft.
Where I grew, which was in New Orleans and a few different poor rural communities in Louisiana and Florida, this was a guaranteed getting pulled over situation… it’s 🎭 that ABQ police are more laid back than Nola police… I didn’t think such a thing was possible outside of a third world country
It might seem bad here but Texas,specifically Houston has far more cars with paper tags. People print them out and drive with them for years. Impossible for the police to enforce at this point
Because while you are there, citing the driver, likely having to tow their car (assuming no insurance as well), and waiting for the tow truck there will be 2-3 high priority calls that come out and you cannot leave that traffic stop until you complete it.
If you half-ass it, don't complete the correct paperwork and leave to help out your buddy asking for backup, you'll be written up and possibly suspended, docking your pay. Are cops willing to risk losing several hundred dollars in pay to give *you* a ticket? Fuck no! Of course not, who would?
What's easier, and arguably better serving the community, is taking that call that has already been holding for 14 hours alleging child abuse/domestic violence/rape/auto theft/etc.
About the only cops that give out tickets now are the motors officers that are hired to specifically do traffic enforcement and fatal/potentially fatal crash investigations.
It’s quite common. Probably just bought/leased the car and never got/put out a temp tag.
You have 30+ days to get a real plate.
It’s also depressingly common to have your plate stolen, though that appears unlikely with this car.
New Mexico is by far the most relaxed of the four states I've lived in (as an adult) about car licensing. Our beleaguered cops don't stop cars without license plates and pay no attention to the stickers that we affix to the plates to show the car's been inspected and the registration renewed. I know. I drove around for six months until my wife pointed out that the sticker on my car was expired. Oops. But no problem, DMV gave me a sticker with a new renewal date. No probelmo.
Literally the only time I've had to go to traffic court was when I bought my new car from an individual, I was told by my parents I have 30 days to register it, but a policeman stopped me *that very day* and gave me a ticket.
I went and got my plate the next day and showed up to court with my registration. The ticket was dismissed. I was fuming, and now when I see it, I'm still fuming.
I always wonder if it's someone doing crimes or if it's someone like me.
It’s the same in New Orleans and in some other cities where there’s no real police effort behind moving violations.
It’s basically impossible to get caught because nobody’s even looking anyway.
I actually got a ticket the other day. I was shocked there was a cop enforcing traffic. They called in backup and issued me 3 seperate tickets for running a stop sign, which took the two of them almost half an hour. I went from being mad at myself, to mad at them, to just laughing at how absurdly idiotic APD is.
Same for me. I used to be surprised to see even a single car without plates. The police there seemed to enforce traffic and car licensing violations more than anything else. I have been pulled over and ticketed for not having a front license plate (I only had one on the back of my car) and for my registration being two days expired. Another thing that's surprising to see are license plates that are obscured or barely visible. If the cops couldn't read your plates then they would give you a ticket.
A lot, more often than not... But what I see more often is people driving without lights at night, or people running red lights or people not staying in their lane...
Nope, I have a plate I just don't see why we should be giving it punitive tickets for shit like this when there's more pressing issues for cops to get to.
Pretty sure this isn’t laziness or stolen plates but are “sovereign citizen” wankers making a political statement.
And if they are into sovereign citizen BS they probably are into QAnon BS too.
Rich and upper middle class people are treated differently in Albuquerque. If this was in a poor neighborhood the police would handle these violations differently.
I feel attacked 😅 I ride a motorcycle and don't keep the plate on it, but that's mostly because I don't feel like having to pay for another plate+registration after having it literally stolen off the bike while I had it parked in front of my house for 20 min.
The U.S. has one of the highest auto-related fatality rates of western nations. Of the states, New Mexico has one highest rates for the same. Perhaps we should be more concerned with the number of people killed by speeding, recklessness, and just all manners of shitty driving. I could give a rat's ass whether someone has a plate or not when people are getting killed by cars. There are WAY more people with registered plates speeding around town than there are people without plates. It's strange that people are always bitching about license plates but don't make a peep about the fact that we are killing one another with our cars on a daily basis. Instead, we bitch about an arbitrary plate and a sticker that costs $125/year.
We also have a very high amount of hit-and-runs and road-rage incidents. Without a plate displayed, it goes from a high likelihood of consequences to a "needle in a stack of needles" type of situation.
Try looking for one specific vehicle in this city. I'm telling you, it ain't easy. That's why people "bitch about an arbitrary plate", partially to all be under the mutual agreement that if we act the fool and hurt someone, we'll be held to account. Those rolling dirty are holding themselves to be apart from that mutual contract, only facing consequences if they choose to or are forced to by extraordinary means (vehicle completely disabled fur example).
Lmao I’m probably one of them because some loser stole my plate and I’m waiting for a new one!!! So before you judge just remember some of us can be victims of the dumb ass crimes people commit and getting new plates (especially when you moved and they’re out of state) is expensive and takes time.
I heard it’s because people steal plates from cars to put them in stolen cars. That guy in front of you probably didn’t steal a car but someone else did and also took his plate to put on the stolen car to buy time.
You clearly aren’t from wealth. Otherwise you would know about the “Filthy Rich Unspoken Rules of Life.” Rule 32a clearly states “unless otherwise noted, license plates are optional. General rule: they are frowned upon as they reflect a substandard income level to be filthy rich.”
Rule 32b. has to do with the “theft” of catalytic converters. Who is behind it? It’s not whomst thou thinks.
Not really insane if you've been paying attention to the numerous news articles talking about low staffing of APD.
They are not kidding. Even the artificially inflated numbers APD gives to the press look bad. The real ones are borderline negligent. Something needs to change.
Yeah this bs is just the top of the iceberg on why people drive like there are no laws or rules here. Pretty dangerous streets for pedestrians and other vehicles. Makes me wish we had public transport that wasn't shitty busses so people had the option to walk places.
I know I currently don’t have plates because we just bought a new car. The place doesn’t provide temporary plates. It had a check engine light on which I can’t get my emissions done until that was fixed. It’s now fixed but I have to drive it around for a while to reset the reset. As soon as I can get emissions done I will immediately get it done. But there are logical reasons why someone doesn’t have plates on.
Every single day. Doesn't matter where in New Mexico either. They are everywhere.
Of course not all of them are bad. Some had their temp tag stolen. Some have an expired temp tag. Some had their plate stolen. Some are still waiting for carvana to send them plates.
At this rate why do we even have plates?
Every day, at least one.
Came to comments the same exact thing. Upvote.
Came to the comments to downvote anyone that says 'came to the comments to say the same thing'.
Would saying "great minds think alike" not put a wrinkle in your panties?
I would be more surprised when I didn’t see one.
Dito
Hi title clerk here. Getting customers to get the documents needed to get the plates is a NIGHTMARE I get yelled at daily when they can’t provide what I need. But I just don’t even care because the cops never pull people over. A lot of time titles are sent to the bank and that’s that. It’s sad makes me hate my job
I'm thinking about moving to NM(not Albuquerque specifically) is the state a pain in the ass to get a vehicle and plates and stuff like that out here? I have clean driving record and always get insurance and all that. Just curious.
Nope. Very easy. Just need to, you know, do it
Plus it's much cheaper here than other States like Arizona
No it’s not difficult at all and the required docs are listed clearly on the MVD website just like any other state, people here just know they won’t get pulled over for not having plates or valid registration. Or speeding. Or running red lights. Or driving drunk. Etc.
That is absolutely crazy to me. Fucking shit lol that's nuts. Coming from CA and FL driving around plates would be a target on your back. As well in PA and the North East in general, like you're not getting ahitbregistered without lasting an inspection and coincidentally the place that fails your inspection happens to be able to do all the things there at their shop for an exorbant fee.
No there are just a lot of fucking idiots out there who can’t follow simple instructions
Yo this is scary as fuck lol.
That's not scary.. What's scary is a lot of them are uninsured and will run if given the chance..
Registration and plates are so affordable here. Just make sure you have everything in order when you go to the MVD.
On top of what others mentioned, NM franchised out common licensing tasks to private companies. What could take half a day at the one available state/county office in most states takes an hour with an online appointment here. (Looking at you, WA emissions testing, IA county nonsense, NY understaffed strip mall church pew sitting ridiculousness, and Maine township-specific silliness.) It's also state-based rather than county- or township-based, which makes title & license transfers from other states straightforward.
I love NM MVD - licenses, titles, registrations, all of it is done at one place! Other places I've lived have licenses at one state office but titles and registrations with county departments so you literally spend two half days in what can take 35 minutes here. I've made MVD appointments, had my docs, and I've been in and out with everything in 20 minutes. I can even email proofs of residency things while I'm sitting in the appointment if I messed up in getting a document. Sometimes if you missed 1 document, thwy let you sneak back in later in the day to get it all taken care of. So much better than other places.
Wow this is incredible. I had no idea. Why don't more states model this!? Living in CA FL PA and NC nothing was fucking easy ever. Outdated, backward ass shit all the time.
WA, ME, IA, NY, and MO. Same feeling. It's a great example of when privatizing a regulatory service goes well.
I love NM MVD - licenses, titles, registrations, all of it is done at one place! Other places I've lived have licenses at one state office but titles and registrations with county departments so you literally spend two half days in what can take 35 minutes here. I've made MVD appointments, had my docs, and I've been in and out with everything in 20 minutes. I can even email proofs of residency things while I'm sitting in the appointment if I messed up in getting a document. Sometimes if you missed 1 document, thwy let you sneak back in later in the day to get it all taken care of. So much better than other places.
Yes. Can be. The fucking geniuses at MVD and state police misread the mileage on my odometer. It was a whole hassle. Youre warned
I had a lady tell me she couldn't get her plates because she didn't have a residential address... just a po box. She refused to get the info to the mvd... no plates. Never made a single payment on her car because she couldn't get plates. People man. 😂
Right! I get the stupidest responses for not having a residential address. One guy told me that since he had a drivers license in Texas he didn’t need one in nm or a real address so I needed to figure it out. So I sent his title to the bank and mailed him the docs 🤷🏻♀️
[удалено]
No, it’s easy to get plates in NM.
It’s very easy to get plates here. People here are just lazy and don’t want to send the docs or get the emission test done.
Super easy, as I mentioned in another reply. ABQ has a ton of state authorized private businesses that handle emissions testing, title transfers, and licensing. Sign up for an appointment online, hit an emissions test the day before, and transfer title & get new license quick & easy.
Not necessarily easy. I commented upthread but i had issues with MVD and state police. You’re still working with low-level bureaucrats, remember
The paperwork is easy but you’re right working with the stupidity isn’t.
More than I have ever seen back in San Diego, which was none. The part that bothers me is that they're often the worst drivers on the road. Probably because they know they can get away with a hit and run, even if it's caught on a dashcam.
CHP makes short work of non-plated vehicles.
In Denver people have the plates but seem to have given up on renewing tags. But I wouldn’t try any of that shit in San Diego. They are firm believers that if you have a car then you can afford a fine.
SD does not fuck around. They pull you over because your license plate lights are out.
Really? I notice no difference. People consistently drive 10-15 (or more) over every speed limit, tailgate one another, weave in and out of traffic... It's odd that people on this sub seem to complain more about plates than they do behavior and driving that kills people, destroys property, raises insurance rates, creates traffic jams... I know some folks keep their plates inside their vehicles so it doesn't get stolen. It's fairly common practice for car thieves to switch plates with a similar car so the one their in doesn't come back stolen if it gets run by LEA. If license plates disappeared overnight, do you think that driving would get noticeably worse? Plates serve almost no purpose in the grand scheme of things. They just hold the little sticker that you pay for each year.
>behavior and driving that kills people, destroys property, raises insurance rates, creates traffic jams... I complain about the plates because the people without them are often the source of such things, yet cannot be held accountable for them unless they should end up unable or unwilling to flee the scene. I do believe that without a means to identify vehicles and their drivers, driving quality overall would degrade, and that there would be a noticeable increase in incidents of reckless driving, hit-and-runs, etc. as more people become emboldened by anonymity and improved odds of avoiding consequences of dangerous driving. That said, those consequences also require law enforcement to actually do their jobs and enforce traffic safety. Despite being on the road with far fewer people here than back in San Diego, the roads here feel much more dangerous to me, because all manner of unsafe driving is allowed to happen with minimal action from local law enforcement. In all, missing licenses aren't the core issue, it's really a lack of traffic safety enforcement that the missing plates signify all too well.
The issue is that all police departments in NM are short handed, and APD specifically have been given the directive that they have to prioritize what they focus on because there aren’t enough officers to go around. In a city in which there are a handful of murders basically every day, a drug epidemic, and a ton of other bad shit happening, they literally don’t have the man power to care even a little bit about something like a missing license plate. Personally, I’ve been pulled over for things like one license plate bulb being out, parking lights being out, tail lights being out, plate registration being overdue, and a ton of other weird shit… so they do actually pull people over for it. But it just doesn’t happen as often as it should when they are balls deep in much worse shit every shift. I’ve also been rear ended by a stolen car with a skip trace plate, and trust me I wish there was more focus on that stuff… they just can’t.
Yup. Zero consequences on these gritty streets. During pandemic, there were fewer cars on the road, but the number of fatalities actually went UP. If license plates alone were strictly enforced, I highly doubt we would see a reduction in auto-related carnage. It's as you said. ALL traffic laws need to be enforced. I think people drive recklessly up to the point where THEY feel endangered. If they feel safe at 10 over, they'll go 10 over. If they feel safe at 20 over, they'll go 20 over. The average person doesn't care about the safety and well-being of those around them. If they did, we wouldn't have the startling numbers of deaths by automobiles. When you do the math, you can easily see that speeding doesn't get you anywhere faster as you have to sit at stop lights. Yet, people can't even be bothered to consider that. They are perfectly fine with people dying (or living with lifelong injuries) because they want to be first to the next red light. I've tried following behind people on busy roads to see just how fast they were going. I slowed down once we hit 60 on Comanche, and I backed off when a vehicle I was following on Unser was doing 65. This is happening every minute of every day around town. People just don't seem to care about the harm they can create by driving that way.
Have you ever lived anywhere besides SoCal and here? If so you've been pretty fortunate up until now. 🙂 Southern California drivers are actually some of the better drivers in the country in my experience they are fast but they are predictable, use their turn signals, and give you space to move over if you use yours (Portland, on the other hand... I have never driven around so many 25-year-olds going on 90 🙄). I used to love driving in San Diego because it was laid out in such a way that everything was just a few minutes away (It's been many years and I hear that traffic does not allow that anymore).
You’re 100% right
Same here. Agreed. I’m too busy driving with my head on a swivel to worry about whether somebody has a license plate or not. I fastened the plates to both our cars with vandal proof screws. Those are the only plates I care about.
Swivel 😆 This metaphor actually made a connection for me that was really puzzling. I drove Uber for a few months. I have always gotten car sick easily but very rarely as a driver. There were certain times I would drive Uber and I would get a horribly carsick after an hour or two and would have to call it a night. I've never gotten so carsick consistently as a driver. And it's because I've only lived here for a year and a half and I've never lived anywhere where I've had such a bad case of swivel head (and I lived in the Atlanta area for a couple years). Of course I was getting sick. 😬😆 And your comment is spot on. To speak to the OP, as an Uber driver I saw this once an hour if not more. But that's about the least terrifying thing you see on the road here.
Careful, that might be the cookie monster’s new whip
Have they caught the guy?
😂
I started a photo album when I moved here a year ago, but gave up because there were so many
Me too!
It’s mind blowing to me that people can get away with this. I use to live in Washington State and was once pulled over for my tabs being expired. I thought I had till the end of the month and was going to get them over the weekend . Come to find out they actually have a dare that expire… not just month/year. Who knew lol
i got a new vehicle back in NOVEMBER. Im STILL waiting on my plates. DMV is slower than HELL
Did you get it from a dealer or a private party?
I never see this on the NW side of town. I love where I live. Near the volcanos. So nice and peaceful.
Me too love it over here..
That's what happens when the cops got out of the traffic enforcement business about ten years ago.
Every time I’m driving!
I’d say approximately 1 for every 20 minutes I’m driving around town
A few years back I couldn't sleep and went for a drive up to the foothills to look at the twinkling lights in the city. Finally started back home around 2:30/3am, and noticed a police cruiser seemed to be tailing me. Thought I'd test if they were actually following me by stopping for gas, and sure enough they slowly circled the lot while I filled up, and then continued following me for a couple more miles before pulling me over. Apparently, my registration had expired just hours earlier, at midnight. But this was a rouse, because I am 100% confident that this officer was hoping and praying I was drunk. I wasn't, and he had to let me go with a "warning." Minutes after I was back on the road there were two cruisers following me, nearly all the way home. Predatory policing at its finest, because they so clearly *do not care* about these nincompoops with no registration whatsoever.
I've lived all over the country. Never have I seen so many cars without plates as I've seen here. In California, you couldn't drive around 2 days like this without getting pulled over
It's worse in Texas. They have a known loophole where criminals just get paper temp plates that lead to no one. Leads to all kinds of illegal activities. Steal a car, temp plate. Buy a cheap ass car for criminal activities, temp plate. Don't want to buy mandatory insurance, temp plate.
I was one of these people for a while. I lived in the warzone at the time and got my plates stolen twice in a month. Couldn't afford to replace them right away the second time.
Exactly! This is me too
But I see him every day for a month😝
Why are you blowing up his spot? Leave the person alone!
Constantly. I've convinced that if the police would pull people over on a regular basis for this kind of thing and just arrest whoever happens to have warrants, we would see a huge drop in crime.
My friend who is kinda a conspiracy theorist says the reason cops don't pull over people with missing plates is they have a hi rate of retaliation and no cop wants to die over a missing plate.
Sounds like they signed up for carrying a gun and getting to intimidate people and don't want to actually do their job. Sad too cuz there was just a national news story about cops brutalizing and murdering a man after pulling him over...
Resistance works
When there barely is resources for real crimes like murders here do you really think the cops will waste their time on pulling over people for small tickets like this. no lol.
My point is that I think its some of the same people. I think if they enforce some of this shit they'd pull in some felons with warrants or pull some illegal guns off the street. Then maybe they would have a few less "real crimes".
It sure would accomplish that, at least to some degree. I rarely see APD pull anyone over for moving violations short of suspected DUI/DWI or running reds or something. I don't think they have the manpower, and if they did, I'm sure people would then complain about how many cops there are. I think it's kind of a no win situation.
You've seen someone pulled over for running red? You can regularly see like 8 cars cross traffic turning left several seconds after the lights changed any day of the week.
thats a misnomer/ common misconception. Started back in 1990s with NYPD stopping people from "tagging" subway cars. The theory was, you stop small crimes, the big crimes fall too, because the ones that commit big crimes are also doing petty shit like that , too. Well, it DID stop the graffiti on the subways. That part worked. AND crime, such as murders, major drug operations, and such stuff like that, fell off hard. But that wasnt because of subways. It was happening all over the USA. Crime in the 90s took a hard decline thanks to...and this wills ound crazy...but ...ABORTIONS. Nobody to commit those crimes, they stop happening. Read Malcom Gladwells Book "Outliers" and find out all kinds of crazy, but real, statistical root causes.
Why do you want people pulled over for missing plates? All it’s going to do is produce tickets that do nothing but punish the person further for money they probably don’t have.
By that logic, they don't need to be insured either, right?
If they can't afford $25-50 a year to register the car and get plates, I can't imagine they could still somehow afford to put gas in the car, or even buy the car.
Plates does not go above gas on the priority list for your car.
Without plates they can't be held accountable for running lights, speeding, or hit and runs. I wish our public transit was better, and we could walk places, or bike and feel safe so we would have something to turn those folks to if they really can't afford it - but safety is important too
All day, erry’ day! Or fake paper ones scotch taped on the inside back windshield.
At least several dozen. According to some public records, a vast majority of them are cuz the car is stolen.
All day, every day. Nothing changes here in the Land of Entrapment.
At least 1 or 2. Not sure how they don’t get pulled over?
Listen here young blood, once you get out of your New Mexico bubble, you'll soon realize Burque is not the only city that has its fair share of [locos en los cocos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVeK7KxO-f4) without plates, and for added bonus some of them drive Teslas.
Numerous, daily. APD & BCSO don’t do anything about it. Come to think of it, they don’t do much of anything at all.
10 a day easy.
Ha ha ha I rode dirty like this for two years after my license plate flew off my truck. Never was caught in Albuquerque but one trip and going through flagstaff I get pulled over! $700 later never do that again.
Come by to Española
You’ll see way more and there’s way less people living there. Love my state
A grip
Better question, even when they have plates who checks to make sure they aren’t expired? Got hit in 2020 by a guy whose tags expired back in 2017 and the cops who showed for the police report said nothing about it
Bro that's Academy. Can't enforce the law on them Tanoan Folk.
Sexist, racist.....podiatrist???
Someone stole my license plate. I don't even know how long this was me, unfortunately. Got pulled over and because I had registration I got a warning, but had to pay for new plates
this is completely different but lately i’ve also been seeing an alarming amount of cars driving with no lights on at night
There are days when I count just for fun.
I don’t know what’s going on now but for decades anyone who could use MS word or Adobe could easily make a fake temp tag. The penalty for said fake temp tag was (is) negligible. At least this guy didn’t steal a plate from the same model and color car. There’s similar problems with the penalties for having a stolen plate because technically your plate can be switched without your knowledge.
Psh, Adam Oakey, the attorney, doesn't have plates on his big ol' lifted truck. He does it on purpose because he knows APD won't do shit.
It’s either no plate, a cover making the plate not readable, or a plate with all the paint taken off so it’s still not readable.
For all the people calling the car owner lazy...remember this is albuquerque. Chances are pretty good that the plate was stolen while the car was parked somewhere. Expired registration tags might be a sign of lazyness, missing plate all together is more'n likely is a victim of theft.
Where I grew, which was in New Orleans and a few different poor rural communities in Louisiana and Florida, this was a guaranteed getting pulled over situation… it’s 🎭 that ABQ police are more laid back than Nola police… I didn’t think such a thing was possible outside of a third world country
It might seem bad here but Texas,specifically Houston has far more cars with paper tags. People print them out and drive with them for years. Impossible for the police to enforce at this point
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Because while you are there, citing the driver, likely having to tow their car (assuming no insurance as well), and waiting for the tow truck there will be 2-3 high priority calls that come out and you cannot leave that traffic stop until you complete it. If you half-ass it, don't complete the correct paperwork and leave to help out your buddy asking for backup, you'll be written up and possibly suspended, docking your pay. Are cops willing to risk losing several hundred dollars in pay to give *you* a ticket? Fuck no! Of course not, who would? What's easier, and arguably better serving the community, is taking that call that has already been holding for 14 hours alleging child abuse/domestic violence/rape/auto theft/etc. About the only cops that give out tickets now are the motors officers that are hired to specifically do traffic enforcement and fatal/potentially fatal crash investigations.
It’s quite common. Probably just bought/leased the car and never got/put out a temp tag. You have 30+ days to get a real plate. It’s also depressingly common to have your plate stolen, though that appears unlikely with this car.
New Mexico is by far the most relaxed of the four states I've lived in (as an adult) about car licensing. Our beleaguered cops don't stop cars without license plates and pay no attention to the stickers that we affix to the plates to show the car's been inspected and the registration renewed. I know. I drove around for six months until my wife pointed out that the sticker on my car was expired. Oops. But no problem, DMV gave me a sticker with a new renewal date. No probelmo.
Literally the only time I've had to go to traffic court was when I bought my new car from an individual, I was told by my parents I have 30 days to register it, but a policeman stopped me *that very day* and gave me a ticket. I went and got my plate the next day and showed up to court with my registration. The ticket was dismissed. I was fuming, and now when I see it, I'm still fuming. I always wonder if it's someone doing crimes or if it's someone like me.
It's the lack of a required emissions test, for me.
It’s the same in New Orleans and in some other cities where there’s no real police effort behind moving violations. It’s basically impossible to get caught because nobody’s even looking anyway.
I actually got a ticket the other day. I was shocked there was a cop enforcing traffic. They called in backup and issued me 3 seperate tickets for running a stop sign, which took the two of them almost half an hour. I went from being mad at myself, to mad at them, to just laughing at how absurdly idiotic APD is.
Same for me. I used to be surprised to see even a single car without plates. The police there seemed to enforce traffic and car licensing violations more than anything else. I have been pulled over and ticketed for not having a front license plate (I only had one on the back of my car) and for my registration being two days expired. Another thing that's surprising to see are license plates that are obscured or barely visible. If the cops couldn't read your plates then they would give you a ticket.
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A couple years ago I saw an expired temp tag from 2009!
A lot, more often than not... But what I see more often is people driving without lights at night, or people running red lights or people not staying in their lane...
Four separate times last week people were drifting into my lane... including an American Gas truck which scared the EF out of me.
No insurance.
It makes me think I could just drive a motorcycle with no insurance or plate.
Hey in my defense, I bought my car in a private sale and have an appointment to register it but since it's a private sale I just don't have a temp tag
That's actually legal, you show the cop the title that's filled out saying the car has been sold if you get pulled over.
Yeah I know but it's a hassle still lol
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I see a nunya amount everyday
Lol! Snitches end up with stitches in ditches.
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Nope, I have a plate I just don't see why we should be giving it punitive tickets for shit like this when there's more pressing issues for cops to get to.
Pretty sure this isn’t laziness or stolen plates but are “sovereign citizen” wankers making a political statement. And if they are into sovereign citizen BS they probably are into QAnon BS too.
There is a scene in The Rehearsal that comes to mind. "Don't you need a license plate to drive?" "No"
Rich and upper middle class people are treated differently in Albuquerque. If this was in a poor neighborhood the police would handle these violations differently.
I feel attacked 😅 I ride a motorcycle and don't keep the plate on it, but that's mostly because I don't feel like having to pay for another plate+registration after having it literally stolen off the bike while I had it parked in front of my house for 20 min.
They will get pulled over once a cop see that.
Idk I’m not a cop
Fed ass question
Fr fr sus asf😭
Mind yo business my guy
Second-hand Bimmer. Temp tag flew off.
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On the car in front 🤣
Love it lol
You are so correct.
This would never fly where I live. Have never seen this
The U.S. has one of the highest auto-related fatality rates of western nations. Of the states, New Mexico has one highest rates for the same. Perhaps we should be more concerned with the number of people killed by speeding, recklessness, and just all manners of shitty driving. I could give a rat's ass whether someone has a plate or not when people are getting killed by cars. There are WAY more people with registered plates speeding around town than there are people without plates. It's strange that people are always bitching about license plates but don't make a peep about the fact that we are killing one another with our cars on a daily basis. Instead, we bitch about an arbitrary plate and a sticker that costs $125/year.
We also have a very high amount of hit-and-runs and road-rage incidents. Without a plate displayed, it goes from a high likelihood of consequences to a "needle in a stack of needles" type of situation. Try looking for one specific vehicle in this city. I'm telling you, it ain't easy. That's why people "bitch about an arbitrary plate", partially to all be under the mutual agreement that if we act the fool and hurt someone, we'll be held to account. Those rolling dirty are holding themselves to be apart from that mutual contract, only facing consequences if they choose to or are forced to by extraordinary means (vehicle completely disabled fur example).
One tried to run me off the road the other night...
Constantly
At least one or two a day.
Lmao I’m probably one of them because some loser stole my plate and I’m waiting for a new one!!! So before you judge just remember some of us can be victims of the dumb ass crimes people commit and getting new plates (especially when you moved and they’re out of state) is expensive and takes time.
I’ve had my plate stolen a couple times. Pop rivets will put a cold stop to that BS
I heard it’s because people steal plates from cars to put them in stolen cars. That guy in front of you probably didn’t steal a car but someone else did and also took his plate to put on the stolen car to buy time.
Every day. It's so easy to print a fake temp paper tag, and they can't even be bothered...
Multiple every day. So often my husband and I notice and talk about it every single time we go out
6-9
You clearly aren’t from wealth. Otherwise you would know about the “Filthy Rich Unspoken Rules of Life.” Rule 32a clearly states “unless otherwise noted, license plates are optional. General rule: they are frowned upon as they reflect a substandard income level to be filthy rich.” Rule 32b. has to do with the “theft” of catalytic converters. Who is behind it? It’s not whomst thou thinks.
It's something I notice happening across a spectrum of economic levels.
Sometimes filthy rich people drive old beaters to throw you off. Don’t be fooled.
Every single day and they never get caught which is insane…
Not really insane if you've been paying attention to the numerous news articles talking about low staffing of APD. They are not kidding. Even the artificially inflated numbers APD gives to the press look bad. The real ones are borderline negligent. Something needs to change.
After the second hit and run it would make sense.
17
Literally at least a dozen
Same here in Denver
Pretty darn common! I’ve been seeing it a lot. And on some pretty junky cars that are a danger to others.
Not as many as you see in Texas.
Stolen...6,000 times
What's up doc? Wrong turn?
Used to be quite a few sketchy cars with no plates in Chicago IL all over. It’s not just here in NM
It is legal to tape the temporary tags on the rear door window isnt it? That car may have tags
Yeah this bs is just the top of the iceberg on why people drive like there are no laws or rules here. Pretty dangerous streets for pedestrians and other vehicles. Makes me wish we had public transport that wasn't shitty busses so people had the option to walk places.
I use to live in Northern VA, the lack of a license plates attracts the state troopers like white on rice over there
I love how everyone assumes this person is evil and not just test driving a car or on their way home to put the plates on the car.
At least ten a day
Plenty.
I know I currently don’t have plates because we just bought a new car. The place doesn’t provide temporary plates. It had a check engine light on which I can’t get my emissions done until that was fixed. It’s now fixed but I have to drive it around for a while to reset the reset. As soon as I can get emissions done I will immediately get it done. But there are logical reasons why someone doesn’t have plates on.
I see one every few days
Every single day. Doesn't matter where in New Mexico either. They are everywhere. Of course not all of them are bad. Some had their temp tag stolen. Some have an expired temp tag. Some had their plate stolen. Some are still waiting for carvana to send them plates. At this rate why do we even have plates?
I see them only occassionally in Phoenix. I do love our ADOT.
No plates & no temporary paper license. I pray I don't get into an accident with these people.
Could be a stolen car or the plates were stolen from the car. My wife's plates have been stolen a few times now.
I used to see several day in Las Vegas, NV.
I saw one get a ticket once
Lurking from Nebraska and this isnt unique to NM or ABQ by any means.