a peek into the workings of island bureaucracy and law enforcement

I would hope that we hear more details about this situation. It is shocking that any responsible police officer would impound a car because of a minor registration misunderstanding. What kind of 3rd world police state do we live in? What kind of power trip was this officer on?

These are the kind of cops who should be fired to protect the public.... I hope the police leadership does the right thing and demands a full accounting from this" out of control" officer. He should be named and disciplined.

aahhh...just an example of what happens when one dares to speak out in any way about the current administration...

I would have just drove off and not followed the officer. If the car was to be impounded, it should have been towed from the spot it was stopped at not driven to the inspection lane.

Well, it's really hard to comment here with only one side of the story told. But I see a flaw right off the bat. He stated that the plates belonged to his father, which I assume was the original owner. They didn't belong to his son. So my question would be, are vanity license plates transferrable or not. I don't think they are. Now the original owner could use them, but not another party like his son. That would be my best guess as to what the problem could have been. If I were the police officers commander, I would look at this and check to see if there were any willful malicious intent on the part of the officer or was it just a case of poor Judgement or lack of training before I considered firing him.

I don't think the vanity plate issue is clearly defined. In the beginning I saw duplication of plates from one island to another. I was told that was okay since it was two islands. I don't think this occurs today. Then I was told you can have the same name on your vanity plate for every different one you get. Therefore if I have 10 cars, I can get RL on all of them as long as they are from different organizations. Does not seem so any longer, as now when one of my non profits, that has plates, gets an application, the DMV now has to check all three islands to see it's not duplicated on any plate. Explain why this takes such a long process that should be able to be garnered from one click on a keyboard, oh well. When I saw someone using one of those Challenge plates way after the fact, they told me that yes they were told they could still use them. Now they can't. I guess they are writing the rules as they go!

As far as impounding, that's over the top. A simple ticket would do. If these officers would pay more attention to moving violations and stop harassing folks about seat belts, cell phones, front license plates, and now vanity plates, we probably would be moving in the right direction! Oh yeah, don't get caught on the first of the month and have not registered your car, another day they chase folks around like they have shot the Pope!!

Yeah, there are so many things wrong with this whole situation, start to finish. A simple warning, let alone a ticket, would have been appropriate. If you're going to impound a car, you use a tow truck, not lead a high-speed chase. Vanity plates are only good for so long? Who the hell knows anything about that? Nobody, apparently -- not even the people that issue them. Also: The BMV closed for two days due to a foul odor? And yes, I am pretty sure poodle hits it on the head.

And yet, it happened. I won't say stuff like this happens "all the time", but it's a great illustration of ways in which this place differs from the continental United States. Welcome to the islands! *-)

It's a sydrome called "power tripping." It has nothing to do with WAPA and all of our senators have severe cases.
It affects common sense and intelligence. Beware! It is highly contagious.

Seems very disorganized and confusing.

When I picked up my car from the port I did not make it to the dmv until the next day. I even had a police officer behind me for awhile. A few passed me kinda easy to tell nothing was legal about the vehicle. I am sure I could have got pulled over for not having a moving permit with Illinois plates. I see a lot of violations driving that do not seem to be enforced. "Island rules" is how I like to think of it. Police enforce on a case by case basis. These are my first impressions as a newbie.

Drove behind a car with the same America's Cup Challenge plate. Been on that car for years!!

Is it a freedom of speech violation? Maybe Alex Randall said something in public the VI police took as criticism and are retaliating? It would not surprise me....