HOUSTON – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia announced recent findings Tuesday from a report based on the safety and financial consequences of fraudulent paper tags.
Hidalgo and Garcia released a new analysis regarding the negative impacts fake temporary vehicle tags have had on Harris County.
RELATED: KPRC 2 Investigates: Who is keeping track of paper tags on vehicles?
The report suggests that the number of known crimes and incidents involving fake tags, including speeding, theft, and burglary, increased by 306% between FY 2016 (1,705) and FY 2021 (6,920).
In addition, the use of fake plates may have accounted for more than $80 million in lost revenue to the county due to lost toll road revenue, and new title and registration renewal fees.
READ MORE: KPRC 2 investigation into temporary tag problem is getting results
Houston has been called “ground zero” for fake temporary tags. Garcia requested the study to find out how much money Harris County is losing because of the fake plates after our KPRC 2 investigations that exposed the problems last year.
According to Hidalgo, it will take more than a local approach to combat fake paper tags and the negative impact they cause. Hidalgo said the issue needs to be handled more at a state level as well.
In the past, car dealers in Texas had access to the DMV’s temporary license plate portal so that when they sold a vehicle, they could simply print a paper plate.
But many dealers weren’t selling cars at all-- just temporary tags. And the state was not checking to see if the dealers were legitimate.
This year, the Texas legislature passed a bill, which allows the DMV to deny a dealer access to the portal if it determines a dealer is printing fake tags.
It also allows the agency to set a cap for all dealers on the maximum number of tags a dealer can obtain in a year.
In the meantime, law enforcement agencies have been cracking down and Hidalgo said they’ll continue working to fix this issue.
