Why does Minnesota require vehicles to have 2 license plates?

It's one of Minnesota's rules of the road in which two is better than one. But Jodi from Lakeville emailed WCCO saying a lot of drivers don't seem to care about the law.

"When we're out there doing enforcement or if it's used in a crime, we have an easier way to track that vehicle down if we have a plate on the front and back," said Lt. Jen Krier, public information officer with the Minnesota State Patrol.

If a vehicle has just one plate, it's often on the rear bumper. Krier said it can be easily hidden by backing into a parking spot.

Plus, traffic and surveillance cameras might only catch the front of a vehicle.

"The biggest thing I can relate to the general public is in those child abduction cases. When we have a plate on the front and back, there's two directions that we can identify that vehicle," she said.

Minnesota is one of 28 states that require front and back plates, along with our neighbors in Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas. But there are some exceptions to the law.

Only one plate is needed in Minnesota for motorcycles, scooters, trailers, certain classic and collector vehicles (1972 and older), farm equipment and semitrucks.

Jodi said she sees countless cars without front plates. WCCO noticed several while shooting this story. Some were from states that only require one license plate, but a few did have a singular Minnesota plate.

The state patrol did share with WCCO some data on that. From 2023 through 2025, troopers, on average, issued 439 tickets per year for not having two plates. They also averaged issuing about 3,893 warnings each year.

Essentially, if they pulled over 10 people for missing a license plate, only one got a ticket.

"It is important for us to enforce this, but a lot of the times we do use it as a way to just have a conversation with people and raise awareness to why we need those plates on the front of the vehicle," said Krier.

Sometimes you'll see people put the license plate behind the front windshield, maybe because they don't want to drill holes in their front bumper or if the bumper was damaged in a crash. That type of display is not allowed.

"You cannot have it in that front windshield. State law requires you to have it fixed to the front bumper," said Krier. 

Other rules to remember are that license plates must be displayed horizontally, and the letters, numbers and tabs must always be visible.

WCCO reached out to the Ramsey County and Hennepin County attorneys' offices to find out if missing a license plate is considered a pretextual stop, also called a nonpublic safety traffic stop. A pretextual stop is when law enforcement pulls a driver over for minor traffic violations that are mainly equipment-related, like a broken taillight or having an item hanging from a rearview mirror.

Both agencies have adopted policies in which certain pretextual stops will not be charged. That includes failure to illuminate a license plate. However, both agencies do not consider having a missing license plate as a pretextual stop. 

"We would encourage law enforcement to investigate this situation as well as missing plates (all together)," said a spokesperson for the Ramsey County Attorney.