Request By:
Mr. Steve Cheski
Acting Managing Editor
Messenger Inquirer
Owensboro Publishing Company
Post Office Box 1480
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Joseph R. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter to the Attorney General, you asked several questions concerning license plates, the answers to which are as follows:
(1) Can a private individual whose license plate was obtained from a junk dealer get into trouble? Yes; KRS 186.190(5) states that if an owner junks his vehicle or renders it unfit for future use, he must deliver the plate and registration receipt to the county clerk of the county in which the vehicle is junked. The clerk must then in turn send the plate in to the Department of Transportation.
The penalty for failure to turn in a plate is set out in KRS 186.990(2).
(2) Who owns the plate -- the motor vehicle owner or junk dealer? Neither one; the license plate remains the property of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. KRS 186.190(1) provides that when a motor vehicle changes ownership, the license plate must remain on the vehicle as a part of it until the expiration of the registration year. If a license plate is cancelled, KRS 186.181 requires the police and all peace officers to seize the plate when found. Neither the motor vehicle owner nor the junk dealer at whose place of business a vehicle is junked have any ownership rights in the license plates whatsoever. Therefore, a junkyard dealer has no authority to allow an unauthorized person to use a plate since the plate belongs to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
(3) Are private plates issued to unmarked state police cars? Yes; KRS 186.065(2) states as follows:
The departments of revenue, transportation, justice and the attorney general may authorize registration . . . and be issued regular license plates for vehicles for investigatory purposes.
Regular license plates are used by the State Police on their unmarked vehicles for undercover work. There are no similar statutory provisions permitting regular license plates for county sheriffs' departments.
(4) Would outside law enforcement agencies know that the sheriff's department was using an unmarked squad car with a plate formally on a vehicle owned by a private individual? Not unless the sheriff apprised such agency of this fact.
(5) May a sheriff's department use an out-of-state plate on unmarked squad cars? No; KRS 186.150 prohibits a Kentucky resident from registering his vehicle out-of-state and there is no exemption for a sheriff's department.
If this office can provide any further information, please let us know.