They are among more than 150 people who’ve been cited over the past 14 months in the city’s ongoing crackdown on residents with vehicles registered elsewhere.

Thirty-three residents with out-of-state license plates on their vehicles are getting letters this week from this city’s tax assessor and citations from the police.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — Out of state, but not out of sight.

Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt said Thursday that she intends to keep the pressure on.

“It’s a pet peeve of mine, and it’s a pet peeve of a lot of residents,” she said, holding printouts of e-mails from residents complaining about their neighbors.


She read from one: “These people need to pay their taxes in Woonsocket and not some town in Massachusetts.”

Rhode Island requires residents to register their vehicles where they live. Municipalities say the excise taxes help pay the bills. Police say that accurate registrations are important for public safety. Insurance companies use the true address to determine rates.

Those who violate the law can be cited for operating on a foreign registration and ordered to a hearing at the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal.

In reality, police in Rhode Island have rarely taken action. Over the last 25 years, the Traffic Tribunal has heard anywhere from just two to 18 of these violations per year, according to administrator Dennis Gerstmeyer.

Then, Woonsocket launched its first crackdown in April 2018, inspiring other police departments, and the numbers soared.

Last year, the Traffic Tribunal heard 212 violations of foreign registrations. As of mid-July, the Traffic Tribunal had heard 248 cases — not including the 33 people getting the violations in the mail this week. They’ll be summoned to court on Sept. 5, and those who get their vehicles properly registered before then will have their cases dismissed.


As a state representative, Baldelli-Hunt had amended the state law on foreign registrations to include people who park their vehicles in driveways, garages, and parking lots, not just along the road.

As mayor, she directed Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III to use the law and go after the scofflaws. He worked with the Traffic Tribunal and devised a plan to have the night patrol officers check their posts for out-of-state vehicles parked in the city consistently over 45 days.

Most have vehicles registered in smaller towns just over the border in Massachusetts, where the car taxes and insurance are lower than in Woonsocket, Oates said. Massachusetts car taxes are limited to $25 per $1,000 assessed value. Woonsocket is $35 per $1,000 of assessed value, with an exemption for the first $2,000.

A few have license plates from Texas and Maine, where online registrations and cheaper costs make it tempting for those trying to avoid the taxman.

Despite the crackdowns, despite even the message boards posted in neighborhoods warning residents to register their vehicles in Woonsocket, some residents hadn’t gotten the message.

Lieutenant Thomas Calouro, who led the crackdown, said the officers didn’t find any repeat offenders from the last three sweeps.

“Follow the law,” Calouro said, “because there’s no end in sight.”

Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com