Law enforcement officials and a pair of Republican state senators are taking a stand in favor of saving Ohio's front license plate.

Elimination of the front plate, scheduled to take effect July 1, 2020, "is like having one hand tied behind our back," said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.

About 15 county sheriffs, deputies and police officers joined Sens. Joe Uecker of Clermont County and Jay Hottinger of Newark on Monday afternoon to introduce Senate Bill 179 to, in Uecker's view, "reverse a bad decision."

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The front license plate is a valuable tool for law enforcement in solving — and preventing — crimes, the senators and officers said at a Statehouse news conference.

"It will make our work harder and make it easier for criminals to succeed," said Grove City Police Chief Richard Butsko Jr., pointing to the 2017 kidnapping and murder of Ohio State University student Reagan Tokes, whose body was found in a Grove City park.

An automated license-plate reader on a Columbus city vehicle read the front plate of her car that had been abandoned on a street, and inside were cigarette butts bearing DNA used to help convict her killer, Butsko said.

Jason Pappas, a Columbus police officer and vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, said the loss of the front plate will compromise the safety and security of officers — and the public.

"It will make it more difficult for law enforcement to apprehend bad people doing bad things. And it will make life easier for criminals," Pappas said.

He also cited a case in which, he said, a plate reader probably saved a life by flagging the car of a suicidal teenager.

The pending elimination of the front license plate was part of the state transportation budget that increased the gasoline tax by 10.5 cents a gallon at the beginning of this month.

The Republican-dominated Senate had removed a provision in the budget passed by the GOP-controlled House killing the plate, but it was revived as part of the final compromise budget.

The House, led by Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, championed the plate's removal from 13.2 million vehicles, while the Senate and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine lobbied unsuccessfully to keep it.

Despite protests from the FOP, the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association and the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, concerns about vehicle aesthetics and possibly hampering technology that adorns front bumpers with proximity sensors won out over public-safety concerns. Auto dealers and car buffs were among those who lobbied to kill the plate.

DeWine withheld a line-item veto that would have saved the front license plate. He said he asked for a year's delay in removing it to allow officials to study whether new technology could provide a replacement to identify vehicles. Such technology, Butsko said, appears to be a long shot.

"It's going to require a change of heart, particularly in the House," Hottinger said of reversing the loss of the front plate. "It's an incredible crime-fighting tool."

Thirty-one states require front and rear license plates, and no state has dropped the front plate since Connecticut in 1979, and that state later brought it back, said Uecker, a former police officer.

DeWine's office said he has not yet taken a position on the proposal.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow