Drivers in Tennessee have more than 230 license plates to choose from. Tennessee has plates for colleges, lakes, animals and pretty much anything you name . Larry Campbell is a Brentwood cop. A 24 year veteran, Campbell said enough already with the specialty plates. “It makes it ridiculous,” he said. Tennessee currently has more than 230 license plates with more like an Elvis plate and one for the Nashville Predators on the way. According to Campbell, license plates are primarily for vehicle identification, not for personal expression. He said the problem …is too many plates and too many styles that are too hard to read, especially at night. “Visibility is a major problem,” he said. If veteran officers like Campbell are labouring to read the tags, motorists who may witness a crime face an even greater challenge.
“They see a license plate with dogs and cats and horses and cows and 16 different colours,” Campbell said. John areola is the Davidson County Clerk. His office sells specialty plates, receiving $2.50 for each specialty plate sold. Advocates for multiple plates said it gives Tennesseans a lot of choices. It also raises lots of money in which a heavy percentage goes to the Arts Commission and the General Highway Fund.
The organizations themselves also get a huge amount. With the Tennessee Titans’ plates for example, $15.38 of every plate sold goes to the team, which then evenly splits the money between ten charities that include Baptist Hospital, the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, and the Boy Scouts. The number one plate in Tennessee is Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains. Maryland has 900 different organization plates but the plate is one standardized colour and the logo, whatever it is, is placed in the same spot on the plate proving Tennessee’s plates maybe the craziest.