Colorado law enforcement tag team expired tag enforcement
If you're among the drivers in Aurora who think you'll get away with an outdated registration tag on your vehicle -- think again. Aurora police is joining forces with several Colorado law enforcement agencies to put a stop to the expiration madness.
"It's frustrating in the sense that people let it go for so long," said Sgt. Scott Benedict. "Especially in Aurora, we're really not going to tolerate it."
The joint effort is a week of focused enforcement on expired vehicle registrations by eight law enforcement agencies: Aurora police, Denver police, Colorado State Patrol, Monument police, Pueblo police, Fountain police, El Paso County Sheriff's Office and Colorado Springs police.
It's not the first time these agencies have tag-teamed the tag enforcement; the first was a week in September 2024, and it led to hundreds of citations for expired and/or fictitious license plates. According to Denver police, their officers cited 339 drivers that week.
"I think there's going to be a lot of tickets written," Benedict said of this second enforcement period, which begins April 20.
Benedict said it's not hard to spot registration tags and temporary plates that expired a year or more ago not only in Aurora but all around the Denver metro area. While the focused enforcement periods do lead to more citations, he added that Aurora officers keep an eye out for out-of-date tags all the time.
"One of my motor officers got one that (expired in) 2019...and I think they got a motorcycle that was 2016," he said. "The ones that we come across, we will issue a ticket to and there's fees associated to how long the registration has been expired."
Already this year, Benedict said Aurora officers have ticketed 1,575 drivers with expired plates and nearly 500 vehicles have landed in the impound lot for violating the three-strike rule.
"You can expect not only a ticket for registration violations, but if you don't have a driver's license or insurance, you can expect to get your car towed," he said.
The easiest way to avoid fines and a court summons? Get your car and rear in gear and get to the DMV. If not, especially this next week, you run the risk of piled up penalties when officers spot your outdated tags.
"We're not going after small fish here," explained Benedict. "If you're a month or two late, okay. But, there are enough that are extremely expired that those are the focus points of what we're going to be trying to accomplish next week."
The focused enforcement on expired tags begins Sunday, April 20 and runs through April 26. However, in Denver it will run for an entire month: through May 20.
The Denver Police Department shared a news release with the following information about registrations: "According to Denver Motor Vehicle, newly purchased or acquired vehicles must be registered in person at DMV offices, and registration renewals must be done online or at a kiosk. Vehicle owners are reminded that while vehicle registrations have a 30-day grace period after expiration, temporary license plates do not."
