Commander’s Action Line


***image1***Issue:
There seems to be a major problem with the procedures of stolen U.S. Army Europe license plates.
My car was in a local repair shop and both plates were stolen. As soon as I discovered this I reported it to the military security forces on Vogelweh. While the reporting was easy and the Airmen were very professional and friendly, the process seems to be weak in the reporting arena.

As I understood the process, my stolen plate numbers were to be reported to USAREUR vehicle registration and would show up on a list of cancelled plates. This list in turn is provided to (I think) every entry point in USAREUR.

If all of these plates end up on the list, that’s hundreds and hundreds of plates per month. Who is going to check each vehicle entering the base against such a list? No one. There isn’t enough time or personnel to make this happen.
Incorporating stolen plates with all the other cancelled plates is a high risk that should be avoided at all costs.

Response:
Thank you very much for your concern on this issue. When license plates are stolen they are added to the database as cancelled and are flagged as stolen. As you mentioned, there is not enough time to check each set of license plates that enter the base as there are more than 30,000 license plates issued within the KMC.

Certain measures are taken in order to minimize the risk from stolen plates. Security Forces conducts random anti-terrorism measures and randomly checks license plates entering the base. Also, there are 100 percent identification checks to further mitigate any threat.

A new system is planned for all KMC facilities called Installation Access Control System, where identification cards will be cross-checked in a personnel database. Unfortunately, there is no absolute process when it comes to installation security but vigilance by all personnel is a good start.