Aurora police officers crack down on vehicle registration violations in Colorado

When it comes to license plates, Aurora Police Sgt. Scott Benedict knows what's real and what's not. He says he's seen it all.

"I think the age of how old some of them are is pretty striking because there are guys that haven't been employed here as long as some of these temp tags are expired," said Benedict.

He's a sergeant on the Motorcycle Enforcement Team, which has been busy lately. They're cracking down on drivers with bad registrations. Whether that be an expired tag, fake temporary plates, or even people driving without a plate altogether. He says if you drive anywhere in Aurora, you will see it's a big problem.

"It's pretty constant. Like, you can just drive a couple of minutes and you see 4 or 5 of them, probably," said Benedict.

So big of a problem in fact, that this initiative wasn't exactly the police department's idea. While they always can pull you over for registration violations, it was the people who finally said enough is enough.

"The citizens of Aurora, notice as well as we do, they've reached out to their local elected officials. They've reached out to our chief's office, and they expressed their concern with how many actual tag violations are there," said Benedict.

He says the department understands mistakes happen and sometimes there are financial reasons people don't keep their registration up to date, but if you do get pulled over in this summer blitz, the penalty isn't cheap either.

"The fines range anywhere between $15 and $75, out the door for the ones that are expired 60 days, plus the with the surcharge it's $95.50," explains Benedict.

He says while other departments may have different policies when it comes to stopping people with bad registrations, that doesn't affect his orders.

"This concern has been brought forth by our chief's office, our citizens, our council members, and we recognize that it is an issue. That's why we're dedicating our Motorcycle Enforcement Team to go out and enforce this throughout the summer," said Benedict.

In the first week of crackdowns, police say they have already issued 75 summons.