Wild card searches for plates

[EagleEye]

I know that part of the answer to this is "It depends on your state", but how much of a wild card search can you do when you run a plate #? For example if you have just the first three characters -- let's say "ARB" -- and you don't know the remaining three or four, or even how many others there are, can you simply search for "ARB*" and then go through vehicle descriptions until you find something that matches?

Mostly idle curiosity on my part, but there have been times when I've seen vehicles that you might call suspicious and I've only been able to get a partial plate #. (Like if there's a trailer hitch blocking the view or something).

Thanks for any info.

EE

[k9cop21811]

I don't know the specific answer to your question simply because I've never had that problem, but I do know that when we run a plate through our system, which gives us access to every state and Canada, it also allows you to query other vehicle item descriptions such as make, model, year, and color. I would imagine it's set up that way in order to give us the ability to more easily find who we're looking for just incase we don't have all the necessary info. So if you know the color of the car and let's say the make you can probably narrow things down quite a bit even with a partial plate number.

[nsedet]

You pretty well answered you're own question by saying "It depends on your state."

Depending upon how hi-tech the state is, it may be easier or harder to run a query with partial plate information. It is do-able, generally speaking, but usually would have to be a special case (violent crime, major investigation) to get it done. At least here in WA, the State Department of Licensing is so far behind "hi-tech" that it is just an absolute pain in the ass to run a partial plate search through them...meaning even running a query in a homicide case can take a while (there is a very fast way around that if you know the right agency to contact, but it still is a pain). Also, consider that the size of your response will depend on how many character you have, so if all you have is a vague description (say, a "dark colored sedan"), the search is going to give you a huge number of possible leads to follow up on, requiring a lot of manpower.

[MrJim911]

In Illinois we can take the partial plate and also a description of the car and sent a request down to Springfield (capital) and have the guys and gals that are in charge of LEADS look for a match in their master records. If they think they find the right plate a VIN search could be run since the VIN will give a more detailed description of the car. Like 2/4 door, color, etc... And they won't go through the trouble unless it's a major crime investigation. In our PSAP we also have a microfiche (sp?) machine that has all state plates listes on microfilm that we the disatchers could look through. In any case your response may take days or at the very least several hours.

[Officer1979]

In my department, a partial plate can't be ran. Instead, the dispatcher calls the DMV and they run the partial plate. Hope this helps!

[tcsd1236]

No. There are literally thousands of combinations. If it was a matter of a single digit, then yes. But four numbers...no way...