New Jersey woman fights for her 'BIOCH' license plates

MANVILLE

— For four years, Kim Romano’s personalized license plates have been her calling card.

People know it’s her when she steers her dark blue Chrysler convertible emblazoned with the word "bioch," slang for bitch, through her small town.

"They say, we knew you were here, we saw your car," said Romano, 49, of Manville. "People know me by the plates."

Everyone, she said, has been in on the joke. But one person wasn’t laughing and filed a complaint, saying the plates are profane. Now, in a collision between slang and bureaucracy, the Motor Vehicle Commission wants the plates back.

"The commission, in processing your request, erred and assigned a combination which is considered objectionable," wrote Dodie Burrell, a supervisor in the Special Plate Unit, in a May 5 letter to Romano. "The commission has no alternative but to immediately recall the license plate ‘bioch.’"

Romano has little choice in the matter — the MVC won’t renew her registration next month if she doesn’t turn what are now considered profanity plates. She’s not happy about it.

"It’s not offensive," she said. "It’s not even a real word."

The idea for the plates came after the commission messed up a previous request. Romano asked for "big kim," a joke about her outsized personality crammed into her five-foot frame. But the commission sent her "b1g kim," which she said "looked stupid."

So Romano sat down with a co-worker at Somerset County’s vehicle maintenance department to punch in other funny ideas into MVC’s website. Their off-color offerings kept getting rejected after failing to sneak past the screening software.

MVC spokesman Mike Horan said vulgar plates and those with derogatory racial and ethnic terms won’t be approved.

"Anything that might be conveyed as foul," he said. "‘You suck’ would obviously not be allowed."

Finally, Romano typed in "bioch." To her surprise, it was successfully processed. Worried there was a mistake, she called the commission. "They were laughing," Romano said. "They said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the first ‘bioch’ in New Jersey."

Originally, the plates were a nuisance. Police, suspecting they were fake, kept pulling her over, she said. But she grew proud of them over time. Then came the complaint.

"I know that the MVC Special Plate Unit would not intentionally issue a set of NJ license plates with profanity on them," read the complaint, signed "retired police officer." "However, one of our NJ residents ‘got over’ by using slang terminology!"

About 100,000 of New Jersey’s 7 million vehicles have "personalized plates," which cost $50, Horan said. It’s rare for a plate to be recalled, he said.

On Monday, Romano was on the phone with the MVC to pick out a new plate. After a few ideas were rejected she became exasperated and muttered something.

The woman at MVC replied: "I’ll see if that’s available."

Romano expects her new plates -- "whaever" -- to arrive soon.