License Plate Information

We are having a hard time getting registrant information from the police with a license plate. Had a guy yesterday spray out a 5 gallon bucket of wet paint and all of his painting supplies. We got a license plate and video of the guy clear as day, but the police won't give us his information because they say that it is not "criminal". As the business owner, we interpret the Virginia code section for illegal dumping much differently than the police obviously.
Anybody have any insight into this issue?

Our police are very helpful and always take care of it for us. They also always ask if we want to pursue or press charges. I don't think we can just call them with a license plate to get info though. We have to file a police report first.

Back in the day we used to be able to get the name and address of the registered owner from a license plate. Over the years to many people were getting that information for the wrong reasons. So over the years the state of Washington has tightened up the release of that information to the point that it’s impossible for someone who is not involved with law enforcement to get that information. A couple of years ago the state passed a law making it a class “C” Felony for someone in law enforcement to release license information to someone who is not in law enforcement. Most of the time the information wasn’t any good anyway, moved, sold the vehicle etc. About all you can do is clean up the mess, move on and not let it frustrate you. The police here pretty much suck. They won't come out most of the time, they tell you to go online and file a police report and if they think there's enough information they might do something, which is never.

Wow. Yes that is a similar response to what we get. One locality where we have three locations, Henrico County, did a case study on this issue. They basically told us that if we valued our property, we need to hire a full-time attendant and or open and close the car wash daily.

The city and the police would love to see thecar wash go away. Last I had the police to my 22 times for different things. They basicly don't want to do there job. Now that the homeless have moved in they've really got problems. They don't seem to get it, little things turn into to big things over time.

Call your local magistrate and find out if they will pursue littering charges. If so, call the cops back out there, tell them what the magistrate said and and file a report.

I would think the paint everywhere would be considered vandalism, like graffiti is. Not to mention I believe it's a felony for deliberately flushing paint down a drain.

The new-to-me wash is in a city where the cops don't care anymore. I had a problem with a crazy homeless guy hanging around, practically living on the property, scaring customers, and when I called the cops out he'd walk quickly into the street into traffic. Even though I warned the 911 operator that he would, they sent one cop who just stood there and watched him do it. When I asked "Doesn't that show he's a danger to himself?" he just said "Then I'd be fighting him in the street." I wanted to say BS, get in your car and follow him until you can take him in safely and get him help. I understand they don't want to get stuck or bitten, but my job is to clean up after their breakins and rifling through trash and vacuums and I don't want to do it, but it's a job I took on and I do it to earn my money.

All you can do is file a report and press charges, and then hope the police do their job.

Laws have changed. Police will no longer give out personal info based on license plates. That info is not publicly available.

I believe this is due to a few high-profile murders where a few wackos found out where a few actresses lived that they were infatuated with, and went to their homes and killed them.

MEP001 said:

I would think the paint everywhere would be considered vandalism, like graffiti is. Not to mention I believe it's a felony for deliberately flushing paint down a drain.

The new-to-me wash is in a city where the cops don't care anymore. I had a problem with a crazy homeless guy hanging around, practically living on the property, scaring customers, and when I called the cops out he'd walk quickly into the street into traffic. Even though I warned the 911 operator that he would, they sent one cop who just stood there and watched him do it. When I asked "Doesn't that show he's a danger to himself?" he just said "Then I'd be fighting him in the street." I wanted to say BS, get in your car and follow him until you can take him in safely and get him help. I understand they don't want to get stuck or bitten, but my job is to clean up after their breakins and rifling through trash and vacuums and I don't want to do it, but it's a job I took on and I do it to earn my money.

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So in regards to vandalism, the police told us that to prosecute it criminally there must be intent. Which to them is the difference between someone spraying out wet paint out of their truck bed and somebody using a can of spray paint to graffiti on your walls. The guy who sprayed out the paint I guess can argue that his intent was to "wash" his truck, not to destroy our Bay and equipment.

gshick said:

So in regards to vandalism, the police told us that to prosecute it criminally there must be intent. Which to them is the difference between someone spraying out wet paint out of their truck bed and somebody using a can of spray paint to graffiti on your walls. The guy who sprayed out the paint I guess can argue that his intent was to "wash" his truck, not to destroy our Bay and equipment.

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I know an operator who bought a wash with two truck bays, and he was shoveling 5-6 wheelbarrow loads of mud off the floor every day. He closed it and remodeled, put an auto in one truck bay and reopened the other for trucks, but posted "$200 fee for cleaning mud" at the entrance. He said the local police assured him that with the sign posted they would go after someone from their plate info and enforce it.

First thing you need to do is file a police report. It is not up to the patrol officer if he can or cant do it. Its his job and he must do it. It will get turned over to a detective and he will contact you about pressing charges. First file the report.

MEP001 said:

I would think the paint everywhere would be considered vandalism, like graffiti is. Not to mention I believe it's a felony for deliberately flushing paint down a drain.

The new-to-me wash is in a city where the cops don't care anymore. I had a problem with a crazy homeless guy hanging around, practically living on the property, scaring customers, and when I called the cops out he'd walk quickly into the street into traffic. Even though I warned the 911 operator that he would, they sent one cop who just stood there and watched him do it. When I asked "Doesn't that show he's a danger to himself?" he just said "Then I'd be fighting him in the street." I wanted to say BS, get in your car and follow him until you can take him in safely and get him help. I understand they don't want to get stuck or bitten, but my job is to clean up after their breakins and rifling through trash and vacuums and I don't want to do it, but it's a job I took on and I do it to earn my money.

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Can the EPA Clean Water Act be considered with this?

Damoni88 said:

First thing you need to do is file a police report. It is not up to the patrol officer if he can or cant do it. Its his job and he must do it. It will get turned over to a detective and he will contact you about pressing charges. First file the report.

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In our area, typically the officer files a report. Some follow up on the event ... some don't. If they don't we might need to present evidence to the city attorney's office. Not sure if every locality has what appears to be bullet proof glass & metal bars around their city attorney's office ... but when I recently stopped there locally (to leave evidence off and & to talk to someone in person) about an incidence I was somewhat shocked at the extreme precautions that they are taking to protect themselves. Not sure when the extra protection for themselves became so dominant though.

Too liberal of a definition of what is "civil" & what is "criminal" can create just another of many "systemic" problems for honest law abiding local businesses who try as hard as they can to take the "high road". I am not referring to bad news drug high neither ... to answer some low life jokesters or professional comedians for that matter ... playing with the intended meaning of a person's words!

It seems like at one time there was enough honest competition for the city commission offices to make it so better candidates were elected. Of course the police commissioner can be a key factor on how local police respond etc. since he or she oversees what they do to some extent. Also too many judges with a lesser value system at every level in the USA can be a problem. Especially, since they can be in that position of power for a long long time!

We live on a busy through avenue so we have a solar lit sign actually advertising the business. We did that ever since some big city thugs staying at the then nearby homeless overnight shelter tried to intimidate me by stating that I had to be nicer to them because they knew where I lived. My action based answer to them was that everyone in my part of town will know where I live ... not sure but more friends looking out for you ... because they also know where you live ... can help teach them a lesson!

I have found that sometimes trying to seek proper justice can be like walking on eggshells ... but it does not mean one should stop making an honest effort!

I remember getting volunteer help from a computer programmer on the CLA Forum to match available letters & digits to the make & model of vehicle. The online paid service retrieved the wrong person ... but by not trying to contact potentially the wrong person ... I called the officer back & the officer did contact the correct person based on the extrapolated full license number. That "hit & run incident" turned out great with the "unintentional harm causing" guy offering to pay me even more than I asked!!!

DiamondWash said:

Can the EPA Clean Water Act be considered with this?

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I'm not sure if water-based paints would, since they are meant to be cleaned up with water, but surely for oil-based it would.

I used docusearch.com a few years back to catch a repeat felon. Got their plate and ran it through docusearch. Had my info within a few hours. Worked perfectly and gave me complete and 100% accurate information.

Other option is to get a private investigator. They can run plates.

gshick said:

So in regards to vandalism, the police told us that to prosecute it criminally there must be intent. Which to them is the difference between someone spraying out wet paint out of their truck bed and somebody using a can of spray paint to graffiti on your walls. The guy who sprayed out the paint I guess can argue that his intent was to "wash" his truck, not to destroy our Bay and equipment.

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But uou have sign up that clearly states no washing out the bed of truck. Us owners and operators know that NO CUSTOMER OF OURS EVER READS THEM. But they are there for our protection to say in cases like this that it was deliberately done.