Vehicle Registration Plates of The United States - Professional and Governmental License Plates

Professional and Governmental License Plates

Many states, such as New York and New Jersey, issue license plates to members of certain professions who require some sort of special privileges, such as parking or going behind police lines. Examples include plates for members of the press, Pharmacists, Doctors, nurses, EMTs, paramedics, volunteer firemen, medical examiners, and elected officials.

In the United States, all states issue some special sort of license plate for vehicles which are owned by state and local governments, and the federal government issues plates for vehicles it owns, except for many belonging to the United States Postal Service, many of which use no plates. For the most part, the plates are similar to the regular passenger plates, except with a separate numbering sequence and/or with a message such as "government", "official", "state owned", "municipal", or "exempt" (from registration fees) replacing the slogan.

Some states use a distinctive color scheme to differentiate the plates from the regular issue. For example, in Virginia, state government license plates have a number suffixed with "S" and have a light blue background, while local government license plates have a number suffixed with "L" and have a tan background. The standard issue has a white background and a different numbering scheme. In Vermont, municipal government plates have a red background instead of the usual green background; State Police plates are green with yellow lettering instead of white, matching the color scheme of VSP patrol vehicles.

In Florida, government vehicles have a black-on-yellow scheme.

Governmental vehicles in North Carolina are issued permanent black-on-yellow (state-owned) or black-on-silver/aluminum (all other governmental) license plates.

Pennsylvania issues a white on blue (blue on white on earlier plates, some still in use) plate for state-owned vehicles (PA prefix/suffix which carry the OFFICIAL USE legend), municipal (MG prefix/suffix) and vehicles that are owned by Penn State, which carry the STATE UNIVERSITY legend. State-owned and Penn State-owned vehicles are also issued front plates, as are press photographers, however, the press photographer plates are issued on the standard base and carry a PP prefix inside a large keystone. Most Pennsylvania Municipal plates issued now are blue background with white lettering. Also all Emergency Vehicles in PA use the standard issue plate but have raised red colored lettering starting with EV then the vehicle's identifying numbers & letters with the words EMERGENCY VEHICLE where the visitPA.com usually is printed.

Government vehicles in Georgia are issued a plate in the standard design but a numbering series prefixed by "GV" and a decal on the left side of the plate indicating what type of government the plate is issued to (authority, (school) board, city, county, or state).

Georgia State Patrol vehicles have special-issue plates they are required to display on both the front and rear of the vehicle — most other vehicles in Georgia only have rear plates — that have an image of the GSP's patch and the trooper's badge number.

Most Washington State Patrol vehicles use the same format as passenger cars, with the exception that the letters are all "WSP". For example: 123 WSP. The format "1234 SP" may also be seen on WSP vehicles but not as common. In this format only the numbers change, with the SP (State Patrol) designation remaining constant.

The District of Columbia issues special license plates to vehicles owned by the D.C. government. Vehicles belonging to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority display standard license plates appropriate to the class of vehicle, with special validation stickers. Some marked police cars are issued standard plates, but most have a special white-on-blue "Police" plate. Fire department vehicles – except for fire engines – are issued special white-on-red plates. Fire engines in the District of Columbia do not have license plates.

In Honolulu, Hawaii, the license plates on TheBus matches the fleet number of the bus they are assigned to, using a BUS-123 format. Honolulu also has license plates dedicated to its Police Department (HPD-1234), the Fire Department (HFD-1234), the Board of Water Supply (BWS-1234) and City & County Vehicles (C&C-1234), the latter being the only ones that do not match the number on the vehicle is licensed to. Vehicles belonging to the State of Hawaii will display a small "STATE" on the left side followed by the four-digit numbers.

Similarly, like Honolulu's TheBus, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston, Massachusetts places license plates on their buses featuring the agency's logo (a "T" inside a circle) followed by the bus number.

Michigan uses a unique "123456" format for municipal vehicles (including municipal transit buses, public school buses owned and operated by the school district, and police vehicles) and "123456" for vehicles owned by non-profit agencies, such as church buses, buses of private schools, and chapters of the American Red Cross. Michigan State Police plates have the State Police shield on the left side, followed by a four-digit fleet number. The first two digits of this fleet number indicate the State Police post number where the vehicle is assigned. County sheriff plates follow the 12*345 format (the asterisk representing a six-pointed star), but feature a black background and white letters; the left two digits represent the number of the county in alphabetical order.

In New York State, local police vehicles are not issued license plates. In some cases, such as New York City the fleet number of the vehicle is put on a flat license plate using heat transferred letters. In Yonkers there is a special plate that looks similar to the specialized optional plates with the Yonkers Police logo and the fleet number. Other communities in the state have a license plate that looks like the regular issue vanity plate, but with the word "POLICE" on it. New York used to indicate rental cars with the sequence beginning with "0", but that apparently encouraged their targeting by car thieves, because it was believed the owning companies would not be as diligent in trying to find them as private owners.

Government owned vehicles in Ohio are white with red lettering and have the government level (e.g. "State," "County," or "City") that owns the vehicle. Vehicles owned by the Ohio Turnpike Commission are similar to government vehicles with "Turnpike" on the license plate. Vehicles owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation will have a plate number beginning with the letter T. All departments across the state have a one or two digit (or letter) prefix designator. The most commonly seen is "GV." This can be found on anything from city busses to Red Cross vehicles. Other state-funded departments have other types of designators, usually a two digit prefix with a three digit suffix. The Ohio State University has the prefix of "30." Because of the large fleet of vehicles owned by the university, the prefix "S30" is also used.

In Denver, Colorado, the Regional Transportation District uses special license plates displaying the serial number of the bus, while busses operated by private companies use standard Colorado license plates.

Vehicles owned by a branch of the U.S. military may have a license plate issued by that branch of the military, although some utility vehicles will have no license plate at all, only an identification number applied directly to the body. The United States Postal Service adopts the same practice, especially for its delivery trucks. Vehicles owned by the U.S. General Services Administration will have plates issued by the GSA.