New-resident license plate rules hard to enforce

QUESTION: Is there any enforcement of the rule that out-of-state people who live and work here must register their vehicles with Colorado plates within 30 days of becoming a resident? I see scads of vehicles with out-of-state plates in apartment complexes and in employee parking spaces, parked day after day, on my delivery route. I am sure that Colorado and specifically Colorado Springs could sure use the lost revenue these people are cheating the state and city out of. I do not think that they are military people, who ARE exempt from the rule, as I see no base ID stickers on the cars.
- Dan Rogers

ANSWER: Bob Becker, manager of the county motor vehicle department, said the state requires new, nonmilitary residents to license their cars in Colorado within 30 days. However, he said, it’s difficult to enforce, there is no funding for license-plate enforcement and his is not an enforcement agency. “There are no license police,” Becker said. Usually violators are nabbed when they are caught for other reasons. Public officials we spoke with agreed the additional revenue would be a positive. One past recommendation that hasn’t yet been enacted because it involves city, county, state and federal is a common database of public records such as utilities hook-ups, drivers’ licenses and address changes which could be utilized to determine how long a person had lived in an area.