Tip 7: This Isn’t Your Grandpa’s Car, It’s Just Registered to Him

One of the best ways to beat photo enforcement used to be to simply drive a vehicle that’s registered to someone else.

Before sending out a notice of violation, photo-enforcement workers compare the violator’s face with the driver’s license picture of the vehicle’s registered owner. If those don’t match, the city may mail a letter asking the vehicle owner to rat on the violating driver, or it may not.

If a husband drives a vehicle registered to his wife, or vice versa, a spouse may not ever receive a notice. Same goes for age mismatches. Private citizens are under no legal obligation to tattle on who was driving their car when it was photographed running a red light.

28-1602. Photo enforcement violations; law enforcement review; violation; classification; service of process; no duty to identify photo or respond; definitions

A few years ago, police recently acknowledged to New Times, cities began taking extra steps to try and ID drivers in the photos. That means this tip could fail you.

In response to recent questions, police now say they do extra research if someone disputes the identify of a driver, comparing the MVD photos of all licensed drivers in a household, or using publicly available databases to match the person in the violator photo.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that Tip 1 still applies to anyone receiving a notice of violation in their name.