Can New Hampshire Police Scan Your License Plate and Pull You Over? Yes — and the Cameras Can Run the Whole Shift
By Joseph Kelly Levasseur, Esq. | Manchester, New Hampshire | josephkellylevasseur.com
By Joseph Kelly Levasseur, Esq. | Manchester, New Hampshire | josephkellylevasseur.com
A client called me after a stop in Bedford NH, a place famous for these types of stops. He wasn't speeding. No broken taillight. No Driving infraction whatsoever. The officer told my client that his license plate was flagged because the computer in his car reported the owner's license was suspended. The question I hear next is always the same: How is that legal?
Here is the part that surprises people. Yes! If that cruiser has license plate readers, they can be running the entire time the officer is on patrol. They are built to passively read plates of cars ahead, beside it, and even coming the other way. The officer does not have to pick your car first. The cameras compare what they read to a hot list loaded into the computer — including people whose licenses or registrations are suspended. New Hampshire law allows this information directly to the police officer if his/her device is on in the vehicle, the officer is attending it, and the officer follows the confirmation steps before the stop.
Always-on in the cruiser.
Always-on in the cruiser.
State v. Richter, 145 N.H. 640 (2000), said police may run random computer checks of plates with no suspicion of a driving offense, and looking at a license plate which is in public view is not a search. Checking the DMV file that goes with that plate is not a search either.
https://law.justia.com/cases/new-hampshire/supreme-court/2000/richter.html
https://law.justia.com/cases/new-hampshire/supreme-court/2000/richter.html
Richter was about running a license plate. The camera version in NH is RSA 259:68-a. An LPR is a device mounted to a vehicle, attended to and operated by a law enforcement officer, that uses high-speed cameras to passively read plates, match them against a list, and send an audible or visual alarm. alarm. "Passively read” is the always-running part. On a car that has the equipment, the usual practice is: start of shift, confirm the unit is working, leave it on. It scans what passes through the frame. The officer is not required by statute to power it down between calls.
What New Hampshire does not allow under that definition is the unmanned pole camera over an intersection with no officer in the car. Attended patrol vehicle: yes. Fixed, unattended dragnet, NO that is not what RSA 259:68-a describes. RSA 261:75-a still lets an officer query a plate through the Department of Safety with no LPR at all. Typed into the MDT, one plate at a time, is lawful.
The daily list of driving violations in the computer:
The daily list of driving violations in the computer:
NH RSA 261:75-b, IV requires the agency to keep the lists current. Data is uploaded daily so additions and deletions stay fresh. Officers can also update the list during a shift when a bulletin is issued or canceled. That list may include stolen vehicles, wanted or missing persons, warrants — and vehicles registered to persons whose licenses, driving privileges, or registrations are suspended or revoked. See RSA 261:75-b, V(d):
https://law.justia.com/codes/new-hampshire/title-xxi/chapter-261/section-261-75-b/
https://law.justia.com/codes/new-hampshire/title-xxi/chapter-261/section-261-75-b/
The scanner is not guessing.
It is matching your plate to yesterdays or this morning's file. Devices cannot photograph occupants. Agencies must register them with the Department of Safety. Rules are in Saf-C 7200. Unused plate reads must be purged within three minutes unless the alarm leads to an arrest, citation, protective custody, or a missing/wanted broadcast. RSA 261:75-b, VIII. New Hampshire does not authorize a months-long map of every car you drove past. (The LPR statute had been set to sunset in 2027. In 2026 the Legislature repealed that sunset in HB 1059 / Chapter 88.)
A beep is not a stop — the procedure they must follow
A beep is not a stop — the procedure they must follow
- Visually confirm the plate on the car matches the image on the LPR; and
- Confirm by other means that the plate is on one of the authorized lists.
N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 261:75-b, VII Text: VII. Prior to stopping a vehicle based on an LPR alarm, the officer shall attempt to visually verify that the number plate on the list matches the digital image displayed on the LPR. If it matches the alarm it shall be accepted and the officer shall initiate a query of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
The camera is the alarm. The eyeball and the database query are the procedure. Skip those steps and the stop is open to challenge. The U.S. Supreme Court in Kansas v. Glover, 140 S. Ct. 1183 (2020), held that if the registered owner's license is revoked or suspended, and the officer has no information that someone else is driving, the officer may infer the owner is behind the wheel. The officer does not have to see your face first.
Richter said the same thing under the New Hampshire Constitution: if the officer “observed nothing that would indicate that the driver was not the owner,” the stop can rest on the owner's suspension. That is a stop for RSA 263:64 — driving after revocation or suspension. The inference breaks when the facts do not fit.
In State v. Monegro-Diaz, 175 N.H. 238 (2022), the car being driven by the defendant was not his. The defendant was pulled over based on the police officers' suspicion that the driver of the car had an affiliation with the actual owner of the car, which was true but that by itself did not give the officer the right to pull him over. There must still be an identification of the driver based on the hit he received about the driver's identification. At the district court, the judge refused to credit the officer's claimed identification and the defendant's suppression motion was affirmed. The Supreme Court, in its opinion, stated Judges decide credibility of the officer testifying. If the report says the officer “ID'd” the driver from behind in two seconds while driving 35-20 mph and the video says otherwise, that testimony can be rejected.
https://law.justia.com/cases/new-hampshire/supreme-court/2022/2021-0197.html
https://law.justia.com/cases/new-hampshire/supreme-court/2022/2021-0197.html
A plate check of the car is not a completed check of the person. That is why the officer, after he pulls you over, asks if it is your car, what is your name, and where do you live. That is how he/she backs up the identification from the scanner hit.
The part that is almost too simple
The part that is almost too simple
The list is tied to the registered owner and the plate on that car. Drive someone else's car and the plate may not flag you. Get into your own car — same plate, same registration, same owner file DMV already marked suspended — and the scanner is looking for exactly that match. I am still surprised how often that is the fact pattern. People treat the license plate as an afterthought. The State treats it as an seek, find and index key. Do not drive, otherwise you run the very real risk of being caught, and you would be surprised how many actually are.
What an Attorney Looks at after a “plate hit” stop
- Did the cruiser have a License Plate Reader, or did the officer type the plate into the computer himself?
- Was the police vehicle attended by an officer and operating under RSA 259:68-a?
- Was there a Visual match of the license plate before the officer turned on the blue lights?
- When was the NCIC or DMV query time stamped versus the blue lights being turned-on?
- Whose name is on the registration?
- Anything visible that contradicted the owner-is-driving inference? (like tinted windows).
- Does the police report claim an identification of the driver (you) the camera could not support?
Bottom line
Yes, New Hampshire police may scan plates. Yes, the readers on a manned cruiser can run the whole shift. Yes, they may stop a car when the registered owner's license or registration is suspended — if they follow Richter, Glover, and RSA 261:75-b: visual match, confirm the list, then NCIC. The daily upload is real. The three-minute purge is real. The rule that an LPR beep is not, by itself, reasonable suspicion is also real. Unattended pole cameras are not what this statute authorizes. A procedure that was skipped can still be fought. A procedure that was followed, while you drove your own plate on a suspended license, is a much harder fight.
This article is general information, not legal advice for your case. If you were stopped or charged with driving after suspension, call my Manchester office.
Joseph Kelly Levasseur, Esq.
396 South Willow Street, Manchester, NH 03103
603-622-7575
https://www.josephkellylevasseur.com/
396 South Willow Street, Manchester, NH 03103
603-622-7575
https://www.josephkellylevasseur.com/
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