Hiding License Plates Won't Stop Cops From Catching You In A High Speed Chase

If there's one thing you can always count on seeing in any cop show, it's a dramatic high-speed chase or two. This goes a long way to explaining the sheer number of Dodge Chargers that were believed to have been destroyed in filming "The Dukes of Hazzard." You can be sure, though, that those being pursued have tried every possible trick and maneuver to escape the police's clutches during a chase and to avoid being tracked after the fact if they manage to. 

One interesting case in point was a February 2026 chase in Washington's Thurston County. As KOMO News reports, police seized a marauding BMW and took its driver into custody, but not before it had led them on a chase at speeds of up to 150 mph. This did not appear to have been a spur-of-the-moment action but a premeditated plan. The outlet reports, "The driver admitted to seeing the deputy's K-9 unit parked across the street before removing the BMW's plates, doing donuts, drifting out of the parking lot, then fleeing."

It seems the driver thought themselves untracable if they were able to get away without license plates. Unfortunately for them, though, while they were able to outpace the police temporarily, they did not escape. One of the pursuing officers deployed a spike trap that brought a swift end to the chase. The escape was foiled, but even if it hadn't been, police units have sophisticated ways of pursuing, capturing, and tracing their targets, plates or no plates. 

You may have wondered exactly what cops can see when they run your plates. As it turns out, quite a lot, from the obvious information about the registration and insurance status of the vehicle to more in-depth details about the owner. This is why the Thurston County driver went to the trouble of removing the license plates before the chase. Sadly for them, they were caught after the BMW's vulnerable wheels were targeted, and that's just one trick in the police toolbox for apprehending drivers of vehicles without license plates.

In some scenarios, police are able to avoid a direct chase through other means. In November 2025, NBC Boston detailed a piece of technology called StarChase, which has been in use by Massachusetts State Police since 2024. This is essentially a small GPS tracking device, launched from the front bumper of a police vehicle onto that of a suspect via remote control. As Massachusetts State Police Driver Training Unit trooper Colton Leary explained to the outlet, the tracker "gives us updates every few seconds that get sent to our dispatch so we can coordinate that response."

This is valuable because it helps alleviate the need for chases in the first place, pinpointing a vehicle's location regardless of the state of its license plates (or lack thereof). Speeding police, then, are not an additional danger on the roads alongside speeding suspects. There are other technologies police have access to that make hiding license plates ultimately ineffective.

On the night of the chase with the vehicle without plates (only around half an hour before, in fact), reports KOMO News, one of the deputies involved caught another Thurston County speeding vehicle by means of a grappler. These are another formidable police innovation, which attach to the front of the vehicle and, when deployed, catch a back wheel of the target. They have been sported by the Splendora Police Department in Texas, one of the first adopters of the new technology. As demonstrated by KPRC 2 News Houston, it consists of an arm of sorts that can be lowered from the front of the vehicle, allowing a powerful net to be launched at the vehicle ahead, unfurling as it goes. This connects the two vehicles as a tether, preventing escape.

Vehicles found without plates will still have a VIN, or Vehicle Identification Number, a 17-character identifier applied to and associated with the model during manufacture. It provides police with insurance and registration details for the model, as well as other key information about its history, helping police to determine ownership absent of the plates. During any pursuit, of course, they will have registered the model and make of the vehicle with the force more broadly, not to mention any distinguishing features. 

Removing or concealing license plates, ultimately, can make a vehicle and its owners (or thieves) more difficult to track. What it is also likely to do, though, is increase the legal consequences a suspect will face. The Rules of the City of New York, for instance, underscore that "obscuring, concealing, or distorting plates [is] prohibited," and other forces around the world, such as the North Yorkshire Police in the U.K., also remind drivers that it's an offense to cover their license plates.