Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office targets fake temporary license tags

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with two state agencies to crack down on fake temporary license tags, a practice reportedly committed upwards of millions of times annually. The sheriff’s office will be working with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and the Texas Department of Public Safety to address the issue, the county agency recently announced. “We are always proud to be part of any effort to thwart illegal activity not only in Montgomery County, but in surrounding areas as well,” Sheriff Rand Henderson said in a statement. Unauthorized tags may be penalized as misdemeanor or felony offenses, the sheriff’s office noted.

Montgomery County officers are already part of Travis County’s clean air task force, which monitors vehicle registration fraud perpetuated by Texas’ limited oversight, according to recent reporting from the Houston Chronicle. Individuals misrepresent themselves as auto dealers to print tens of thousands of tags a month, the Chronicle reported. Between 2.1 million and 6 million fake temporary tags have been created through this loophole, the Chronicle’s Dec. 9 report detailed. The Chronicle reported the issue cost drivers. State and local tax revenue suffers, with pollution-causing vehicles left on the road when they would otherwise not pass emissions standards tests and toll fee collections are hard to come by, according to the Chronicle’s reporting. DMV and local tax officials routinely do not verify the legitimacy of a business with applicants not being fingerprinted, the Chronicle reported. Montgomery County Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae is a vice chair of the TxDMV Board, the sheriff’s office noted. McRae praised the partnership. “I commend investigators from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office for their combined efforts,” McRae said in a statement.