License Plate Partially Readable on Camera Footage?

[mjwalsh]

We sometimes can make out less than all six numbers &/or letters on a suspect's license plate. In the past the local PD have successfully done multiple searches trying to match the make & model of vehicle with the plate info. A bit like putting an incompleted puzzle together. We had a recent incident where the officer disappointingly said every character needed to be shown.

I was just kind of wondering what tends to be the norm around the country for local police tracking the owner via license plate info. Also it seems like some subscribe to an online license plate matching service ... just in case that is an alternative ...

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com

 

[Semi-retired]

Law enforcement will not look up anything and share the info when I have asked.

 

[Tom Thumb]

My success with the police dept. has been very poor at best, seems they have other fish to fry.

 

[MEP001]

They'll put more effort into searching if it's a major crime - they certainly aren't going to give the info to you.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I bought a 13x repeated burglar using a plate cam and using an online service to run the plate. Worked like a charm.

Not sure about a partial though.

ETA:

I used docusearch.com to run the plate.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Tried in Chicago to track down someone in a hit and Run with a partial plate. A person had severe injuries. Boththe cops and secretary of state said it could not be done.

 

[Randy]

In Washington it’s a class “C” Felony for a Policeman to give out someone’s information from their license plate. So belonging to a subscription service won’t get you anything. But you can pay a private investigator $40 and he can get you the information. The last one I tried to trace was a 2013 Mazda 6. The girl who bought the car had bought from Hertz car sales in late 2014, never made payment on it, the tags expired shortly after she bought it and gave Hertz a phony address.

 

[mjwalsh]

Randy & others,

I just thought about the time back in 1982 & I had just put in the latest & greatest camera system (with time lapse recording) at the time. A guy with a high profile delivery truck after washing in our truck & RV bay made no effort to make sure the door was up as he left & took out the 11'x13' less than two year old overhead door's three bottom panels. I had signed up for an all day event at our local private University of Mary ... so I was gone. I got a call from the person checking on the place (she had me paged) about 10 AM. I had to leave because of the hit & run accident even though I had paid in full for the whole day.

Long story short ... the two police officers who came down had just enough time shortly after looking at the footage ... to let me know exactly who did it based on the camera footage. True story ... the officers wanted me to contact the person by myself because they were not only going off duty but both were then going to be on vacation. The middle aged man if you can call him a man ... blatantly lied & said he tried to notify the owner & said he called the police immediately after he hit the door. Thankfully, the police station was very scrupulous at how they logged the exact time of the call & the city attorney took over. The "not so wonderful" man had no idea how lucky he was that he was not charged with "hit & run" & subsequent "false report" & that the fact that his insurance paid the very conservative just material cost monetary damage claim from us for him.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

In Washington it’s a class “C” Felony for a Policeman to give out someone’s information from their license plate. So belonging to a subscription service won’t get you anything. But you can pay a private investigator $40 and he can get you the information. The last one I tried to trace was a 2013 Mazda 6. The girl who bought the car had bought from Hertz car sales in late 2014, never made payment on it, the tags expired shortly after she bought it and gave Hertz a phony address.

I beg to differ. I used the above company (after trying no less than 2 others ) to run a plate, and the data provided was exact.

 

[Randy]

I beg to differ. I used the above company (after trying no less than 2 others ) to run a plate, and the data provided was exact.

John,
Unlike Colorado, Washington State DMV doesn’t share their motor vehicle information with online license plate lookup services. There are number of states like Washington that won’t give up that information and it’s understandable

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

John,
Unlike Colorado, Washington State DMV doesn’t share their motor vehicle information with online license plate lookup services. There are number of states like Washington that won’t give up that information and it’s understandable

Ah. I see. How would a private investigator retrieve the info then? From my understanding, docusearch uses private investigators within each respective state to provide information.

 

[Randy]

John,

I have no idea where they get there information and I've never asked him.