Possible Problem Found With Tennessee’s New License Plate

By now you have seen the new Tennessee license plates on vehicles around the area. According to the state there are now 400,000 of those plates on vehicles across the state. 5.5 million will be on vehicles by the end of this year. But, there may be a problem with the new plates. An electrical engineer who builds LPR camera systems has found a flaw in the new plate. LPR stands for License Plate Recognition. Those cameras are an invaluable source of information for law enforcement, especially in Amber alerts but also in solving crimes as it allows police to get a tag number on a vehicle. But according to middle Tennessee electrical engineer Tim Holman, LPR cameras cannot see the new license plates at night. He stated that there was a rash of car burglaries in his area recently, so he used his own LPR camera system to try and get a tag number for police, and that is when he discovered the problem. Holman says his cameras have been utilized by police many times and the new Tennessee license plates are the only ones he has ever seen that cannot be seen at night. The images are blurry or the plates are downright invisible to the cameras. Holman stated he does not know why but it could be the dyes used on the new plates do not provide good contrast under infrared light. We might add, Tim Holman is not the only one who has found the problem and raised concerns. The state says they are aware of the issue but says “It would be premature to discuss any further actions we may take until we fully vet the concerns raised.”