The Aurora City Council wants to crack down on motorists who don’t renew their license plates on time.
The council introduced a resoution Monday. “There has been a large increase in residents in Aurora and around the state operating their motor vehicles with expired temporary tags and registrations, many of which that have long expired. This Resolution urges the Colorado Assembly to pass legislation this session to allow municipalities to enforce motor vehicle registration laws in their Municipal Court to help encourage compliance with state law,” according to a memo from city staff to the council.
The resolution reads:
· “Since the pandemic, the number of motor vehicles on Aurora’s roads with expired license plates or expired temporary registration tags has increased exponentially.
· “The number of motor vehicles with expired registrations has become such a problem in Aurora and the State that the Mayor and City Council members constantly receive complaints from residents about this issue.
· “Current state law does not allow police officers employed by municipalities to issue summons for registration violations to a city’s municipal court.
· Due to current law, municipal police officers must issue a summons on a motor vehicle registration violation only to the county court of the county where the offense occurs.
· When a police officer stops a person for another traffic violation and discovers the driver is also operating a motor vehicle with expired registration, the police officer will most likely issue a summons for the initial traffic violation to the municipal court and then provide a “verbal warning” to the driver for the expired registration offense since registration violations
· The funds raised by the Colorado vehicle registration process are shared among several governmental entities, including metropolitan districts, and these entities depend on these funds to provide services to their residents.
· The City of Aurora wants to encourage compliance with the registration requirements under state law and not just penalize those citizens who fail to register or renew the registration of their motor vehicles.