Personalized License Plate Review Committee Procedure PURPOSE/SCOPE: To establish a policy and set of procedures for the Division of Motorist Services to use in the administration of the review, approval, rejection and recall of personalized license plates in order to provide consistency and uniformity within the personalized license plate program. I. AUTHORITY: Section 320.0805, Florida Statutes II. DEFINITIONS: A. Personalized License Plate means a license plate manufactured with a specific combination of numbers and/or letters chosen by a motor vehicle owner to be printed on their motor vehicle license plate for an additional fee. B. Recall means to require a personalized license plate to be returned for cancellation after the license plate has been issued and determined to be obscene or objectionable. C. Obscene means a combination of letters and/or numbers found to be offensive to morality or decency, indecent, lewd, abominable, disgusting, a slur, profanity or description of body parts. D. Objectionable means a combination of letters and/or numbers that provide a feeling or expression of disapproval, dislike, hatred, violence, method of violence or threat toward a person or group, promotes criminal, gang or illegal activity or violence or is a gang related configuration confirmed by law enforcement. E. Otherwise Objectionable means a personalized license plate, which has already been issued or assigned for issuance as a regular, personalized, special or specialty license plate. F. Review Committee means a group of employees of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and a member of the general public assigned the responsibility and authority for approval or rejection of characters submitted as choices for a personalized license plate prior to issuance or the recall of a previously issued personalized license plate, when determined to be obscene or objectionable. 1 of 6
The members of the Review Committee must make every effort to be fair, consistent, open-minded, reasonable and non-prejudiced regarding all racial, religious and national groups. When a decision has been made to reject or recall a personalized license plate and additional information or proof of extenuating circumstances is provided, the Review Committee will reconsider the plate based on such information. G. Review Authority means the Director or Deputy Director of the Division of Motorist Services, who has final authority for the rejection or recall of a personalized license plate. III. POLICY: It is the policy of Division of Motorist Services to administer the personalized license plate program in a fair, consistent and unbiased manner. The division will make every effort to avoid issuing a personalized license plate that is obscene or objectionable. However, if such a plate is issued erroneously, the division will take appropriate action when a legitimate complaint is received. IV. GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES: A. Tax Collector s Staff Members have the responsibility to receive and process initial applications for personalized license plates in the county license plate agencies. They are responsible for screening the choices for personalized license plates to ensure the combinations of characters are not obscene or objectionable and enter them into the database to determine if the choices are available for issuance. If approved and available, the plates are reserved in the database. B. Inventory Section is responsible for screening personalized license plate orders generated on the database to determine whether the reserved license plate choices are approved or rejected. C. Review Committee is responsible for review of personalized license plates referred to them. They are responsible for requesting further research as deemed necessary to enable them to make a recommendation to reject or recall such plate. D. Review Authority has the ultimate responsibility for making the final decision on personalized license plates referred to him or her to determine if such plates should be rejected or recalled. V. PROCEDURES: The following information provides the written procedures and refers to the applicable exhibits for rejection or recall of personalized license plates. 2 of 6
A. Rejection of A Request For Personalized License Plates: 1. Daily the Inventory Section screens the personalized license plate orders on the database to determine if such plates should be approved or rejected. Sources used to determine if a license plate should be approved or rejected are as follows: a. An unabridged dictionary b. Slang dictionary c. Medical dictionary d. On-line foreign language dictionary or translation 2. If a license plate configuration is identified as one that could be obscene or objectionable, the license plate order is canceled and referred to the Personalized License Plate Review Committee. B. Recall Of An Issued Personalized License Plate: Personalized license plates are only recalled when the Personalized License Plate Review Committee and Review Authority have determined that such plate should be recalled. 1. A complaint on a personalized license plate may be submitted in one of the following formats: a. Written correspondence by mail or fax b. E-mail If a verbal complaint is received, the complainant must submit their complaint in writing. Regardless of the format in which the complaint is received, the Personalized License Plate Action Form (Exhibit A) must be completed to go before the Personalized License Plate Review Committee. 2. The complaint is referred to the Review Committee secretary to research the database files to determine if the complaint is an actual personalized license plate configuration issued by this state. 3. If the complaint is valid, it is submitted to the Review Committee for action. The secretary of the Review Committee will schedule a meeting of the members to determine whether the personalized license plate configuration should be recalled. The Committee must take into consideration the definitions of obscene and objectionable as defined in this procedure. 3 of 6
Additionally, the members must make every effort to be fair, consistent, open-minded, reasonable and unbiased regarding all racial, religious and national groups. When the review is completed and a decision made, the action form is forwarded to the Review Authority for final approval. 4. When the Personalized License Plate Action Form is received by the Review Authority, they will make a final decision concerning the rejection or recall of the license plate. The decision will be indicated on the form and forwarded to the Inventory Control or Review Committee secretary for the appropriate action. 5. When the Personalized License Plate Action Form is completed for the configuration for personalized license plate to be rejected, a letter is prepared and sent to the requesting county. If Exhibit B has been completed with a decision indicated to recall the personalized license plate, a letter is prepared to recall the personalized license plate. 6. The rejected or recalled license plate configuration must be added to the excluded file on the database to keep the license plate from ever being issued again. 7. If the license plate configuration has been recalled, a temporary plate is issued to replace the license plate and a stop is placed on the temporary plate. A recall letter is issued and sent to the customer with the temporary plate and complete instructions. C. Review Committee 1. The Review Committee shall be composed of ten members as follows: a. Chief, Bureau of Issuance Oversight, who shall serve a chair of the committee. b. Member, Bureau of Issuance Oversight, who shall handle administrative tasks. c. Member, Office of the General Counsel d. Member, Communications Office e. Member, Customer Service Center f. Member, Florida Highway Patrol g. Member, Bureau of Motorist Services Support h. Member, at large i. Member, Strategic Support j. Consumer member, to be appointed by Director 4 of 6
2. All members shall serve 2 year staggered terms. The BIO Chief and administrative member shall serve indefinitely. Members whose terms expire can be reappointed for another two year term. 3. Staggered terms are as follows: a. Customer Service Center and Member at Large expire December 31, 2015 and every 2 years thereafter. b. Strategic Support and Citizen member expire December 31, 2016 and every 2 years thereafter. c. Office of the General Counsel, Bureau of Motorist Services expire December 31, 2017 and every 2 years thereafter. d. Communications Office and Florida Highway Patrol expire December 31, 2018 and every 2 years thereafter. 4. A quorum will be required for voting, which shall be 6 members. 5. Each member shall have one vote. A majority vote is needed to reject or recall a plate. The Chair shall only vote in the event of a tie. 5 of 6
EXHIBIT A PERSONALIZED LICENSE PLATE ACTION FORM License Plate Number: Configuration on FRVIS: Original Issue: Complaint (see attached): Plate Type: 10-year replacement: Plate Issue Date: Year: Make: Color: Name of Registered Owner: Date of Birth of Registrant: Customer Explanation: Additional Comments: RECOMMENDATION BY REVIEW BOARD Allow: Recall: Reject: Configuration does not violate obscene or objectionable procedure. Configuration does violate obscene or objectionable procedure. Committee Comments: Signature of Chairperson or Representative: Date: FINAL ACTION BY REVIEW AUTHORITY Upheld Overturned Signature of Director: Date: Revised 05/2011