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It is illegal to redact your address on your registration card, but there are options

February 23, 2024

Q. Honk: I have redacted the street address, the city and the ZIP code from my Department of Motor Vehicles registration paperwork that typically goes in the dashboard. Does this violate any law? The garage door opener is in the car, so thieves could get into my car away from home, learn where I live and gain entry into the garage. The DMV registration card should not show where you live.

– Bruno Gutierrez, Colton

A. You can’t alter the registration card, Bruno, or you could face a fix-it ticket or a citation for an infraction, said Jake Sanchez, an officer and spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. How such a violation is handled is an officer’s discretion.

Officer Sanchez understood your safety concerns, and offered up a couple of ideas.

Put in it your wallet, or perhaps in a see-through photo sleeve attached to you keys so it is always with you when you drive.

Or take out a P.O. Box and make that the address on the registration, if permitted by the DMV with your type of driver’s license.

Now, if someone creates a counterfeit registration card or forges one to mislead the authorities, the ante gets substantially higher.

“That would be the felony side of things,” Sanchez said.

By the way, an officer can pull up the registration info via the computer in his or her squad car, so long as the database is up, using the license-plate number or the vehicle-identification number (VIN).

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Q. You probably get this all of the time, but what kind of license plate is this?

– Mark Porterfield, Laguna Beach

A. Over the years, Honk has covered more ground than tall fescue, Mark, but he doesn’t recall answering this question.

Mark popped over a photo of a plate he saw in a Los Angeles parking lot. It shows a red “A,” a two-digit number and then a smaller “R1.”

The A signifies the vehicle owner has been in the state Assembly, the R means the person is retired from the state body and the 1 indicates it is the second plate issued that is tied to that specific office.

Somewhat similar plates are also available to state senators and U.S. Congress members of both houses.

“Retired plates can be issued to multiple former or retired (state Legislature) members for the same district,” said Ronald Ongtoaboc, a DMV spokesman. “Legislative plates are not issued to retired members of the U.S. House or Senate.”

Might be kind of fun to have such plates if you qualify, but the perk isn’t free. Under the Vehicle Code, it costs an extra $53 to register and then an extra $43 each year.

HONKIN’ DASHCAMS: A colleague of Honk’s is writing a story about dashcams. Do you have one in your car or truck, or have a GoPro or similar device on your motorcycle helmet? Would you talk to the reporter about if? If so, please drop Honk an email.

HONKIN’ FACTS: Passing through John Wayne Airport’s in January were 884,884 passengers, about 1% more than that month in 2023. Southwest Airlines was the clear leader with 280,796, while American Airlines, at 149,607, and United Airlines, with 135,022, followed.

To ask Honk questions, reach him at [email protected]. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk

Orange County Register

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It is illegal to redact your address on your registration card, but there are options

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