See a car with bad exhaust? DMV wants you to tell on them
Don’t get mad the next time you find yourself stuck in traffic behind some vehicle belching smoke.
Get a license plate number.
Thanks to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles’ Smog Spotter program, it’s never been easier to rat out your fellow motorists.
Since the mid-1990s, state and local officials have operated anti-smog hotlines to report smoking vehicles. Last year, the DMV rebranded the initiative and expanded it statewide, with stepped-up promotion in hopes of boosting participation.
“We just saw it as a way to breathe some fresh air into the program,” said DMV spokesman Kevin Malone, almost with a straight face. “That’s a really bad pun.”
The launch of Smog Spotter last June resulted in a “huge” and immediate spike in reports, Malone said, though data for the program since then are still being compiled.
Before the rebranding, DMV received 6,000 to 8,000 reports of smoking vehicles each year from the public and law enforcement.
For the past month, the department has been plugging Smog Spotter in online ads and radio spots airing in Las Vegas and Reno and through the streaming music service Pandora.
“We try to target the times when air quality is the worst, which is the winter,” Malone said.
The program and its promotion is funded with smog check fees, which cover the DMV’s entire emissions control program.
Reports can be made with a toll-free call to 1-844-363-7664 or online at smogspotter.com. In either case, you will be asked for the make, model and license plate number of the offending vehicle and the approximate time, date and location of your sighting.
The system is completely anonymous. You won’t be asked for any information about yourself when filing a report.
Though smog inspections are required only for vehicles registered in Clark and Washoe counties, Malone said, “it’s illegal for a vehicle to emit visible smoke anywhere” in Nevada.
The registered owner of a reported vehicle can expect a warning letter urging that the problem be fixed to avoid action against the registration.
Smoking vehicles reported by law enforcement or DMV employees, meanwhile, can have an immediate hold placed on their registrations pending emissions testing, Malone said. “And if the thing is just blatantly smoking, we’ll just cancel the registration until it’s fixed.”
The owners of pollution-making vehicles also face citations.
In a statement announcing the new initiative last year, DMV director Troy Dillard said smoking vehicles are bad for the environment and people’s health in general.
“Vehicle pollutants can cause cardiovascular disease, asthma or even lung cancer,” he said.
The Smog Spotter website was designed for easy access and use from mobile devices because that’s how most polluting vehicle reports come in.
But a word of warning to prospective Smog Spotters: Don’t break one law to report someone for violating another. In Nevada, it’s illegal to text-tattle and drive.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.
