Two states in the USA, Oregon and Washington, have enacted legislation establishing a procedure by which law enforcememt officers, upon apprehending an unlicensed driver, can take possession of the driver's vehicle registration. In such cases, the driver is given a temporary registration certificate, and a striped ("Zebra") tag is placed over the annual sticker on the vehicle license plate. A new annual sticker can only be obtained by the owner demonstrating that he or she is properly licensed. This "Zebra" Tag Law was applied to sufficiently large numbers of offenders (about 7,000 in Washington and about 13,000 in Oregon) to provide an opportunity to evaluate both the general and the specific deterrent effect of these laws on illegal driving by DUI offenders. (A)
Abstract