In recent years, fake license plates have become a major source of chaos in Taiwan's public security. Criminals use fake license plates to cover up their criminal tracks and commit crimes such as fraud, shooting, kidnapping and extortion, which pose a serious threat to public security. At the same time, since traffic regulations stipulate that vehicles will be revoked of license plates if they exceed the speed limit by 40 kilometers, this has also led to a surge in demand for fake license plates, further exacerbating the severity of the fake license plate problem.
According to statistics from the National Police Agency, the number of cases of forged license plates fined under the Road Traffic Management Penalty Regulations has increased by 4.64 times compared with the previous year. Recently, the Songshan Branch Police seized a case in which a passenger bus was hung with fake license plates, and the Shilin Branch Police also cracked a residential theft case in which the suspect also used a motorcycle with a fake license plate. These cases show that the use of fake license plates has become quite common and poses a serious threat to public safety.
In the face of this problem, legislator Li Kunze proposed short-term and medium-term solutions. He suggested that in the short term, special anti-counterfeiting stickers can be affixed to the license plates after the vehicle is taxed or inspected to enhance the anti-counterfeiting performance of the license plates. In the medium and long term, RFID anti-counterfeiting tags should be added, and chips should be implanted in license plates, and roadside sensors or smart AI should be used to identify the authenticity of license plates. This plan aims to fundamentally solve the problem of fake license plates and improve the level of intelligent traffic management.
In his response, Minister of Transportation Chen Shikai said that the Ministry of Finance supports the suggestion to exempt victims from license plate replacement fees and administrative fees. At the same time, the recovery of violations of using fake license plates or confiscation of vehicles is also under review. Chen Shikai also said that the short-term, medium-term and long-term practices proposed by Commissioner Li Kunze will be included in the opinions and discussions, and the construction of RFID anti-counterfeiting technology in the medium and long term will be considered. Previously, the head of the Highway Bureau's supervision team also said that more advanced anti-counterfeiting measures are being studied.
Information experts also actively responded to Commissioner Li Kunze's proposal. They believe that through road sensing equipment, detection at important intersections, once a large number of installations are installed, AI identification and tracking technology can be used to quickly find out whether it is a stolen car or a fake license plate. This technology, combined with spot inspection methods, will effectively combat the crime of using fake license plates.
Li Kecong, director of the Consumer Education Foundation and convener of the Transportation Committee, emphasized that the problem of fake license plates cannot be solved by simply adding anti-counterfeiting labels, because anti-counterfeiting labels can still be forged. He believes that the long-term solution is to plan and build anti-counterfeiting license plates with embedded chips as soon as possible. This type of license plate can not only fundamentally solve the problem of license plate forgery, but also integrate the current multi-faceted and complex traffic detection, collection, and transmission interfaces, including electronic tags, vehicle dynamic information, etc. This will help to comprehensively expand the coverage of traffic supervision and mobile payment, and use big data analysis to effectively and accurately grasp road conditions and conduct comprehensive intelligent traffic management.
The problem of fake license plates not only affects traffic order and public safety, but also damages the legitimate rights and interests of the people. Therefore, strengthening anti-counterfeiting measures and cracking down on fake license plate crimes has become a consensus among all sectors of society. RFID technology is expected to play its role in this process and help Taiwan build a safer and smarter traffic environment.
