Police in Pennsylvania are divided as to whether registration stickers should be brought back to license plates.

Rep. Barry Jozwiak, R-Berks County, said the elimination of stickers in early 2017 by PennDOT has made life harder for police officers across the state. That’s why he introduced a bill to create a two-in-one registration and inspection sticker for Pennsylvania license plates.

At a Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee hearing Tuesday, Jozwiak said the loss of registration stickers also meant the loss of a visual tool for law enforcement.

Jozwiak isn’t alone: the state Fraternal Order of Police, Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association and the Pennsylvania Auto Theft Prevention Authority have all lent support to the proposal. Those organizations say their members have struggled with the lack of stickers.

Some police officials, however, say the registration stickers aren’t needed. Major James Basinger, the director of the bureau of patrol for the Pennsylvania State Police, disputed claims that law enforcement officers are being hindered by the lack of stickers.

Basinger argued that the computers in patrol cars provide more accurate and up-to-date information than a sticker can. Troopers can scan through license plate databases in their vehicles and get real-time information, he said.

“This direction verification through PennDOT’s systems is a more accurate way to verify a vehicle’s registration status,” Basinger said. “With the previous registration sticker system, we frequently investigated incidents where the old registration stickers were altered or stolen from one vehicle and placed onto another.”

The bill would also remove inspection stickers from front windshields, which Basinger said troopers frequently use.

The legislation isn’t just to address complaints from law enforcement. Jozwiak said the lack of stickers, touted as a cost-saving initiative, has actually cost PennDOT money. According to Jozwiak, PennDOT lost $22 million in passenger car registration fees in 2017 alone.

Proponents of the bill also pointed to what seemed like a reduction in the amount of vehicles being registered each year statewide. That number increased steadily from 2008 to 2016, but leveled off in 2017 – the year the stickers were eliminated.

PennDOT Driver and Vehicle Services Deputy Secretary Kurt Myers slammed the bill, arguing that its language is “problematic.” Myers said the supposed reductions in revenue and registrations didn’t paint a full picture.

Myers said vehicle registrations are not constant, but more like an ebb and flow. He pointed out that while registrations seemed to drop off in 2017, dipping under 12 million, they were back up in 2018. He also said that the increase from 2008 to 2016 shows recovery from the recession, which would level off eventually anyway.

PennDOT gained money from registrations from the fiscal year of 2016 to 2017 to the fiscal year of 2017 to 2018, Myers said. He added that PennDOT said saved around $7 million from not having to print license stickers.

Some lawmakers, including Rep. Martina White, R-Philadelphia County, were concerned that PennDOT apparently didn’t follow through on its proposal to use those savings as grants for law enforcement agencies. While White and Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon County, said they thought a program was being set up, Myers said there was “never a grant program” and that the money had been allocated elsewhere.

Myers also said the bill, as it stands, would eliminate customers’ ability to renew their registration over the internet. He cited the legislation’s requirement that vehicle inspections be visually verified as to why customers would no longer be able to use the internet.

Jozwiak said a customer could still use the internet, but would just need to scan their receipts.