ST CHARLES, Mo. — Weeks after the I-Team reported on two public officials driving with expired license plates while police enforcement on the issue is down — they’re still skirting the law.
Now, at least one community is telling its officers to crack down on bad tags.
“My personal feeling is, it's the law and it's time,” said St. Charles Mayor Dan Borgmeyer.
Starting this week, officers in St. Charles will be removing expired temporary tags from cars they stop and attaching them to the tickets they write as evidence, Borgmeyer said.
They’ve already cited about 30 people in just the first two days of the initiative – that’s more than officers issued in all of 2019 and 2020, according to statistics provided by the department.
Here is a breakdown of how many tickets St. Charles police issued during the past three years:
2019 – 25
2020- 36
2021 – 81
The new push to enforce expired tag laws comes as crime is up in St. Charles, as it is in many communities. Still, it's a priority for Borgmeyer.
He said enforcing the temporary and expired tags laws helps officers curb other crimes at the same time.
“One of the officers I talked to said the first temp tag he stopped was counterfeit and the person had a felony warrant, so it's kind of a double whammy, we can police that way and we can also police the temp tags,” Borgmeyer said. “The second temp tag the officer stopped was a gentleman who said he wanted to do it, but he couldn't afford it.
“But he was driving a brand new BMW.”
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page’s Chief of Staff Calvin Harris drives a Volvo.
Viewers contacted the I-Team about his out-of-state plates, which expired in 2021. He’s been working for the county since January.
Page’s spokesman Doug Moore told the I-Team Harris would have the issue resolved by May 20.
Moore said this week there was an error with the paperwork Harris needs from Volvo to renew his plates, and he hopes to have the correct paperwork in hand by the end of this week.
St. Louis Alderman Dan Guenther drives a more than 20-year-old pick-up truck.
Viewers also contacted the I-Team about his plates, which expired in 2019.
After the I-Team report about expired tags aired on June 2, Guenther got a flat tire. The City of St. Louis plastered a neon yellow sticker on his passenger-side window telling him he had until June 7 to move the truck off the street or it would be towed.
The I-Team checked on the truck on June 8 and found it had been moved to a parking lot near the alderman’s home in the city’s Ninth Ward.
And the plates were still expired.