Because how do they know you didn't just steal a sticker? Those stickers don't have anything on them to prove you actually registered the vehicle. Just a color and a date period.
this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2026
104 points (100.0% liked)
No Stupid Questions
50382 readers
729 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Jurisdiction protocol?
In my country, we get asked to blow into the breathalyzer. That's the only thing they haven't figured out how to make digital.
It's an analog breathalyzer?
They mean digital, as in using digits, as in fingers and toes. They're talking about sticking fingers in your butt.
You can feel the alcohol then?
It certainly does not look cloud-connected, AI-enabled, or requiring a subscription…
Well that's good. Im sure it is digital in the same way as a calculator or a clock, but analog in the pure sense is a funny idea.
Let me smell your breath. … yeah you’ve been drinking
I prefer to think there's a comically big lever with a little hand on it and the 4 smilies for "how satisfied are you with the cleanliness of this restroom" it can point to while you're blowing.
It's not to check if it's registered. It's to check if it's registered to YOU. Does the name/signature on your license match the name/signature on the registration? If not, you'll need to explain why you're in possession of the car.
Wat? That makes no sense?
"This car is registered to someone else."
"Yes, I'm borrowing it"
"..."
"You must be a criminal?"
But that’s exactly how cops act?
Like in this situation this cop can now say “your story makes no sense”
And then proceed to escalate if they feel like it.
Literally had this experience with a cop when I bought a car that day and drove it with my old plates on it (not an uncommon thing to not use the temp tags). Got pulled over while stopped at a train track because the cop ran my plates and was upset that the vehicle models didn’t match the registration. Threatened to impound my vehicle and everything.
I got mad at the cop and straight up said “alright well my story does make sense, so I’m gonna tell you it again and you’re going to give me a ticket so I can leave” and then he got all pissy, wrote me a ticket and then I left. He pulled me over again about 2 minutes later because he forgot to give me my license back.
For clarification, I’m a white guy and at the time I was an active member of the military (which was noted on my license). All, I’m saying is police officers are power tripping fuckwads more often than not.
Fair enough.. you guys have a pretty severe cop problem :/
This is why if you're lending your car it's a good idea to give them a signed note. Especially if they're going out of your state/ province/whatever. It might not help much, but typically car thieves don't have one.
"I'm going to head over to the store"
"One sec, let me just write you a note saying that I allowed you to borrow my car"
An interaction dreamed up by the utterly deranged.
Just to be clear, I'm not criticising your explanation here. I just think it's kind of absurd how US cops seem to act. Just the idea that you could be suspected of stealing a car if you don't own the car you're driving just seems crazy to me.
The store is in another state? If you trust them enough to lend them your car frequently the note can sit in the glove box.
(Asking cold-weather people: does anyone keep any gloves in there?)
I'm not very familiar with the US, but I've driven borrowed cars through several countries over here in Europe without any other documentation that "Trust me bro, I'm borrowing this car" on plenty of occasions. In that regard it seems pretty strange that you would need more documentation to bring a car across state lines in the US.
Also, it's pretty common here in Europe for people living near the border to shop on the other side (groceries or whatever). I can't imagine it's any less common in the US for people to have nearby shops in the next state.
Do the cops not have access to the registration records on a digital system?
Fun fact: this never happens on a bicycle
Yes it does lol, read through random court records sometimes when you're bored, you'll be shocked what you find.
Hmmm. That's an excellent idea.
Just another thing they can use to fuck with you and maybe get to write you a ticket for.
Or, if you're black, they then have an excuse to shoot you as you reach for it. "Looked like he was reaching for a weapon. I feared for my life!"
In California, proof of payment for a vehicle registration renewal is allowed as proof of registration, specifically to cover the period after the payment is sent but before the DMV has issued the registration and corresponding sticker. So even if the DMV hasn't received the payment in the mail, if a motorist can show some sort of proof (eg a bill pay transaction on their phone), that is acceptable.
Also, the DMV here will issue one-day registrations, in order to allow a vehicle to be driven from one storage location to another. If a motorist has a proper one-day registration, that won't necessarily show up on the police computer, but is nevertheless legit.
Both of those cases would only apply if the cop's computer shows the vehicle as unregistered, hence why the cop would ask in those cases. It doesn't explain why they ask for it every time, even when the vehicle is registered normally.
It's also a chance for cops to look in the glove box, where most people keep their registration. Or to smoke out people who stole a car and thus don't know precisely where the registration is.
But those are ancillary reasons for cops asking about registration. I figured OP only wanted the bona fide, entirely-defensible reasons.
Pulling people over for traffic violations is largely a money making scheme. Why remove the law from the books when computers are widely available when you can still add a fine for people who either don't have theirs or have an old one?
load more comments
(2 replies)
In my state I’ve been asked for “registration” most of the times I have been pulled over but they have always meant my insurance verification. They have been able to pull up your plate registration in real time since the 80s at least and now it comes up automatically as they drive around because they have ALPRs on their dash.
In my state they can pull up your insurance too, they just don't.
Stickers can be forged. Checking your papers against a database is a lot more certain. The sticker is just there (or out of date) to justify pulling you over.
And it's common for vehicle thieves to swap plates on vehicles that they steal. They may want to check to match the registration and the plate.
Nah. The plate either matches the vehicle or it doesn't. Sure, you can steal one from a very similar car, but then that tag is in the db for being stolen. Not having that piece of paper is one more angle for getting probable cause to fuck with you, and deliver a ticket.
but then that tag is in the db for being stolen.
Not if you put the plates from the stolen car onto that car and that car's owner doesn't notice...
load more comments
(3 replies)
We get asked for license and insurance, no registration.
Still possible to be asked where I am, but less so since the stickers have the plate number on them.
Do they? I haven't gotten a paper registration in a couple of years. It's a state by state thing though.
I know they sometimes ask if you're from a different state, and if their system is down in some places, but as more states do away with paper copies that's going to disappear. I suspect you're just in a location that hasn't gotten there yet.
I got pulled last month for some piddly shit, and all the cop asked for was licence
Hell, I caught a ticket for not carrying my registration on a canoe. They always fuck with me because they assume I'm running a trolling motor without registration, despite the perfectly legal numbers I put on the side.
"Your license. Where's your license?" "It's back there on the bumper, man!"
load more comments
(1 replies)
In Georgia USA ive been pulled over 3 times in the last 10 years (forgot to turn my lights on, thought it was a turn lane when it wasnt, was a day late on renewing my tags). I've asked them if they wanted my registration and they always said no.
why do they still ask for the registration paper?
In New Mexico you are required to sign the registration and keep it with the vehicle at all times.
in Texas i think it goes on the windshield? idk i never registered a car there
view more: next ›