MANSFIELD – Ohioans will no longer need to display a front license plate beginning July 1, 2020.

State lawmakers agreed to remove the requirement in this year’s transportation budget, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in April. Ohio has required drivers to display a front plate since 1908, except from 1944-1946, when the state wanted to conserve steel during the war effort, According to the Dayton Daily News.

Lawmakers have debated for decades whether or not to keep the front plate requirement, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Those in the auto industry have opposed the law, arguing that front plates drive down the value of vehicles and are not compatible with evolving front-bumper technology. Those in law enforcement have supported the law, claiming that front license plates help officers solve crimes by providing a way to quickly identify suspects.

The law was removed this spring after intense negotiations between state lawmakers, who also considered the gas tax increase and numerous other items in the same bill. Next summer, Ohio will join 19 other states that do not require a front license plate, including all five of its neighbors – Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

For the first time in 73 years, Ohio drivers won’t need a front license plate. How will this change affect local law enforcement, and conversely, those in the auto industry? Richland Source reporters teamed up to find out.

In March, the Ohio House of Representatives passed the Ohio Transportation Bill 70-27. The bill then cleared the Ohio Senate, 22-10.

The budget included multiple provisions, including a gas tax hike of 10.5 cents per gallon to be used on road projects, and a 19 cent increase of diesel fuel. Both of these provisions will begin in July 2019.

Mark Romanchuk, a representative for the 12th district of Ohio, said he did not vote for the Transportation Budget Bill due to several of those provisions on the bill.

“I voted ‘no’ because there were several things I didn’t like about it,” he said. “There were a lot of reasons I voted ‘no.’ There was a gas tax increase on there too. The (license plate) was one of about 100 provisions, but I voted no on the whole thing so in a way, I voted against that.”

The change is one the Ohio General Assembly has been considering for some time, according to state Sen. Larry Obhof, president of the Ohio Senate. 

“This is something we’ve seen a number of times,” Obhof said. “In just about every transportation budget since I first joined the legislature in 2011, one or the other chamber has tried to include a provision like this, so it’s been a long-standing issue.”

Largely, Obhof said, it was a result of changes in the members of the general assembly that made a difference this go-around.

An overall feeling that the budget should be passed may also have played a role, he added.

“In the grand scheme of a $9 billion transportation budget that included other issues like the gas tax, this was part of those discussions but not the most significant,” Obhof said.

Obhof emphasized the budget guaranteed significant additional funding not only for The Ohio Department of Transportation to improve the state’s roads and bridges but also for local governments.

Each county will receive an estimated $3,967,041 in 2020 and $4,011,374 in 2021.

Obhof also emphasized that many other states, including those bordering Ohio, do not require front license plates.

“A majority of states don’t have front license plates now, so this is really just catching up with what other states are doing,” he said.

Obhof acknowledged that historically, members of the law enforcement community have not supported the change. In response to those concerns, he noted that as a former attorney general, Governor Mike DeWine has expressed interest in looking for alternatives law enforcement officers can use in place of existing scanners that read license plates as cars drive by.

“We’re going to have a committee look at that over the next 12 months – what are our alternatives that are less costly and less obtrusive for the vehicle owner?” Obhof said.

Romanchuk said he has spoken with law enforcement about the license plate issue before.

‘“Law enforcement likes the front license plate,” he said. “They want to keep it. In the past it’s come up, and law enforcement is able to stop it. I understand it like this, I was talking with an Ohio State Trooper who told me it’s like seeing with one eye closed. It’s a lot harder.”

Mansfield Police officers are scratching their heads when it comes to how they’ll deal with the new law.

“Both plates were equally valuable,” said Lt. Mike Napier, a training supervisor with the Mansfield Police Department (MPD).

“If the front plates are going away, it will make things harder because we use those plates when we drive and see someone going the other way,” he said. “We have license plate readers that are aimed at a forward 45-degree angle. Those won’t work in getting the rear plate.”

Napier said his division would have to re-learn how to do their jobs without front tags.

“It’ll be one of those things where we’ll look back and be like, ‘Man, if only we had the front license plate.’”

According to Napier, patrol officers often use dash cams and security cameras to pick up license plate numbers. Cars without a plate of the front, obviously can’t be read.

“It will be harder to do traffic stops,” Napier said. “Or know if we are looking at the suspect until they pass us.”

On the flip side, Romanchuk understands the new law will be great news for Ohio’s car dealers.

“Because we require two license plates, it was a bit of an ordeal for car dealers who would take cars across state lines,” he said. 

“Let’s say there’s a used car from Ohio that is being brought to Michigan,” he continued. “Now, (without a front plate,) you have holes in the bumper. That’s the flip side of this. It’s good for car business. That’s what makes this good.”

For Dirk Schluter, he isn’t just the president of one of the biggest car dealerships in north central Ohio. He is a life-long automobile enthusiast.

The president of Mansfield Motor Group, Schluter can see both sides of the front license plate debate.

Ohio has required front license plates almost continuously for more than a century — the regulation was suspended briefly during World War II in an effort to conserve steel — and while the law enforcement community is disappointed with the decision, car owners couldn’t be happier.

“From a dealer’s standpoint, we could take it or leave it. We could go either way,” said Schluter, whose family has sold cars in Mansfield for more than 70 years. “From a customer standpoint, some of these higher-end luxury cars and specialty cars, people don’t like the plates on the front.

“From a personal standpoint, it kind of screws up the look of the car if you’ve got a nice car.”

Ohio is one of 36 states that require a front license plate, but none of the states bordering Ohio require front plates. Dealerships doing business across state lines have found it increasingly difficult to sell cars with holes drilled into the front bumpers in states that don’t require front plates.

“Of the states that surround Ohio, none of them that are contiguous — that actually touch our border — require a front license plate,” added Joe Walsh, fixed operations director at Fredericktown Chevrolet. “And so it can make it difficult to sell vehicles across state lines if a vehicle already has a front license plate bracket on it because people from other states don’t want that.”

Drilling holes in bumpers not only drives down resale value. New safety technology (think sensors and cameras that help prevent accidents) is built into a car’s bumpers.

“Vehicles are being made with significant amounts of technology that is housed in the front bumper,” said Zach Doran, president of Ohio Automobile Dealers Association. “And mounting a front license plate on these vehicles, for our dealers, is becoming a lot more like drilling into a computer than it is drilling into a bumper.”

Law enforcement officials have long advocated for front license plates. Schluter can understand why police would like to see the front license plate law remain intact.

“I think the police would like to see the front license plate law stay,” he said. “That way they can see cars coming and going.

“Consumers and law enforcement are at odds and I can understand both sides of it.”

Romanchuk predicts local law enforcement will have no issues adjusting to the new reality.

“They’ll have to,” he said. “It’s not going into effect until next year, sometime in summer. I’m sure they’ll be a lot (of communication with other states’ law enforcement.) Ohio is not the only state to do this.”

Sheriff Michael Slupe in Butler County, Pennsylvania has never been able to rely on front license plates. The Keystone state doesn’t require them and never has, to the best of Slupe’s memory.

“In PA, we’re just used to not having it,” he said. “And our scanning technology goes beyond the license plate anyways.”

He explained that license plate readers are mounted in a way that allows officers to read license plates, whether vehicles are driving towards or away from a police cruiser, and other technology allows the Butler County Sheriff’s Office to hone in on bumper stickers or other features to identify suspicious vehicles.

Still, he can relate to local law enforcement’s concerns.

“It’s almost like when Pennsylvania said, there’ll be no more registration stickers. If there was an expiration date, that gave me a reason to pull someone over, but now I’d have to run the plate before pulling someone over,” Slupe said.

The small plastic stickers for the corner of license plates were eliminated in November 2013, as a “significant cost savings for taxpayers” after a study found the stickers had “no impact on vehicle registration compliance,” according to PennDOT’s website.

Since put into effect, it’s added an extra step for officers, but they’ve adjusted, Slupe said.

“Law enforcement has dealt with it. There’s a time of adjustment, and they may not like it, but it’s law. You just adjust, that’s all,” Slupe said. “Would it be nice if the legislature listened to the police a little more? Yes, but everybody wants to save money.”

Ohio’s neighbor to the north made the switch more than three decades ago. Michigan had required two plates since 1957, but started requiring only one license plate per vehicle in 1981.

Laurence Van Alstine, deputy chief of the Adrian Police Department in Michigan, can still remember back in 1976 when the state came out with red, white and blue license plates for its bicentennial. Though only 9 years old then, he remembers them being on the front of cars. Just five years later, the law was changed.

Now 52 years old, Van Alstine has never been able to rely front license plates to identify vehicles. He’s been working in law enforcement for 30 years, so they haven’t been required during his time with the police. He has been deputy chief in Adrian — a city of 21,000 — since 2009.

“In some ways, you get half as many opportunities to identify a car, because you’ve gotta see the back or you don’t get the plate. We just get behind them,” Van Alstine said in an April interview.

He explained that officers are trained to aim laser speed detection tools towards where the front license plate would be, whether or not the vehicle has one.

“It makes a great reflector when you have one, but it works just as good when you don’t, because right behind that plastic is metal. So it’s coming back. It’s just a good way to explain to somebody where to aim. It makes no difference to us,” Van Alstine said.

And when searching parking lots for vehicles, he’s found that people will back into parking spots to hide their plates, but it sometimes works to law enforcement’s advantage.

“One of the things we notice because we don’t have front plates, people will back their cars in so we can’t see their plate. But what does that do? It draws attention to your car,” Van Alstine said. “If you go to a nice hotel, you see people just pull in and park. When you go to a seedy motel, people back in because they don’t want you to see their plate.

“You have to work a little bit harder, but it tends just to draw attention more so than anything else.”

Van Alsine is optimistic that Ohio officers will be able to adapt.

“I gotta tell you, we just got legalized marijuana and that’s the biggest change I’ve seen in 30 years. And the people have spoken, it’s legal, and so it’s off our plate,” he said.

“So I’m sure that the law enforcement people in Ohio will figure it out quickly. Law enforcement’s constantly changing. And it’s constantly changing, not based on what we want, but what your legislature wants. They’ll adapt. They’ll figure it out.”

Reporters Curt Conrad, Tracy Geibel, Courtney McNaull and Grant Pepper contributed to this story.