This One Change Made Colorado Plates A Problem For Traffic Cameras

Colorado drivers have a problem: many are receiving tickets for cars they don't even own. A local news report thinks they know why. Recently, a woman wrote in after she received a speeding ticket but noticed that the attached photo radar ticket showed a completely different vehicle. 

The license plates were similar, but Linnebur's license plate had a "D" in the same spot where the plate in the image had an "O." This has apparently been an ongoing issue — 9NEWS recalled a man disputing a parking ticket after the "O" on his license plate was confused with a zero in 2025. 

This is due to automatic license plate readers (ALPR) in Colorado confusing D's, zeroes, and O's. Drivers in Pennsylvania reported a similar problem in March 2026. A new plate design added a diagonal slash through the zero specifically to improve legibility, but this caused toll cameras to confuse zeroes with eights. Turns out a license plate update is what confused Colorado cameras as well.

Colorado has changed its license plate configurations throughout the years — and the most recent one tripped up ALPRs. In the 1980s and 1990s, Colorado plates used a letter-first configuration (three letters followed by three numbers). In the year 2000, it was flip-flopped so the three numbers were first. But by 2018, Colorado decided to stop separating numbers and letters entirely. That's when the issues started happening. 

From 2018 onward, Colorado license plates used a four-letter, two-number format that allowed O's and zeroes to appear on the same side of the plate, allowing for more configurations. Despite this, some ALPRs had never been calibrated to reflect this change, leaving the technology confused. Meanwhile, Colorado lawmakers have been trying to limit access to data collected by these ALPRs, a move other states are also pursuing. In some instances, this has led to court cases. 

The DMV has been trying to change the font to make the two symbols more distinguishable. When 9NEWS asked about adding a strikethrough on the zeroes, Vehicle Services Director Benjamin Whittier said: "We have looked at that. We don't do that. There was a decision made many years ago not to go that route, and it has its own misidentification characteristics we've seen them come back as an eight or a 'Q' if they're dirty or obstructed." He instructed drivers who received incorrect tickets to go to the DMV to obtain a new license plate.