LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It’s no secret that there are hundreds of drivers hitting Las Vegas roads illegally.

Officials tell us driving without license plates, expired registration, or without insurance are some of the biggest issues that they’re trying to crack down on.

It’s more than just safety at risk. It’s also our wallets, which we have seen firsthand with the rising costs of car insurance.

After our previous report, we were overwhelmed by your emails and social media comments questioning why more isn’t being done to enforce the law.

Why are there so many vehicles without Nevada license plates?

So we wanted to get you answers and see what it takes to tackle these pervasive problems. We rode along with the Nevada DMV’s Compliance Enforcement Division to find out.

For Chief JD Decker and his team, they don’t have to look far to spot violations.

In just one hour, we spotted more than two dozen violations, mostly along the same street.

“It’s everywhere all the time,” Decker explained. “Because we have a limited group of patrol officers, when we go out, we’re generally trying to look for the more serious violations: vehicles driving with no plates, vehicles driving with suspended or canceled registrations, because generally, those accompany people having no insurance, stolen plates, or stolen vehicles.”

A landscaping truck was pulled over for not having a license plate.

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“They had an old temporary move permit that was expired. So essentially, this vehicle is unregistered, unmarked because it doesn’t actually have a plate, and uninsured,” Decker explained. “Her driver’s license is valid but she has an extensive history of being cited for driving expired and with no insurance.”

Decker said due to a pattern of problems, the vehicle was impounded and towed and the driver was cited for the violation.

When it comes to making these kinds of stops, Decker said usually drivers know they’re in the wrong.

“They’re just hoping not to get into an accident or get caught,” he said.

“I think one of the reasons why our viewers get so angry about others that are driving around without licenses, insurance, or plates is because it costs the rest of us so much,” I replied. “We’re paying for them.”

“It does. I’ve said this before. The people that are driving around with no insurance aren’t getting in any less accidents than the rest of us are,” Decker said. “They’re just not contributing premiums to the pool of money that insurance companies pay out.”

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His officers have seen and heard it all.

“So often, if it’s a simple expired, people forgot to pay, people who didn’t have the money, people who have other problems with the title. They might have just bought the vehicle and they don’t have all the title paperwork,” Decker said. “And then, the people with the suspended or canceled registrations are just violating the law. They know their registration is suspended. They didn’t pay. They got a citation for not having insurance. They’ve got failure to appears in court. Sometimes, they have warrants.”

At another stop, a driver was pulled over for an expired registration sticker.

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“[My officer] ran the plate and it turned out it was suspended so he made the stop,” Decker explained. “Turns out, the driver doesn’t have a driver’s license.”

So officers confiscated the vehicle’s plates and cited the driver.

“Once you get a citation and you’re faced with all those fines, that’s all money that you could have used to get legal in the first place. Now, you have to legal and still pay all those fines so it’s kind of a double hit for people.”

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Other violations his officers see are the same ones that frustrate our viewers.

“We see a lot of out-of-state plates,” Decker said. “In Nevada, those tags are only valid if the car was recently purchased at a dealer in that state.”

State law gives you 30 days from when you move here to get a Nevada driver’s license, registration, and insurance and we count on that money.

“Because we don’t have a state income tax, DMV fees go to roads and public safety and health care and education and all of those things that other states collect income tax for.”

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Unfortunately, the problems have gotten worse over the years.

“What we’ve found since this became a significant problem around 2020, that we started 2020 with, people that just hadn’t taken care of business. We are left, at this point, five years later, with people that have relatively significant problems: warrants, felony warrants, a lot of DUIs, people that are driving without the proper identification on their vehicle because they are committing crimes or doing things that they don’t want to get caught for.”

So what else can be done?

“This takes everybody and there’s so much of it right now,” Decker said. “It’s going to take all of Nevada law enforcement to address.”

We reached out to other local law enforcement agencies who say they’re on the lookout too. Both Metro and Henderson police have traffic bureaus that enforce traffic laws and respond to collisions.

In Tuesday’s state of the department speech, Metro leaders said officers wrote more than 121,000 citations last year but safety still suffered.

“Writing more tickets did nothing to resolve the fact that our fatal accidents went up. We got to start tracking what is actually happening with these tickets,” said Sheriff Kevin McMahill. “This non-criminal aspect of traffic citations was an experiment that, if you ask me, failed. People are not being held accountable. Period.”

“How is this possible, in a community as generous as ours, as community-oriented as we all are, that we can be that selfish on our roadways,” said Undersheriff Andrew Walsh.

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What can you do?

Most moving violations have to be seen by law enforcement while the vehicle is operating on a roadway.

However, you can file a complaint on the DMV’s website about neighbors with out-of-state plates, no plates, or multiple unregistered or stolen vehicles. You can learn more here.