Jakarta. The National Police Traffic Corps is planning to install chips and QR codes on license plates.

Once in effect, motorists will not be able to get away with using fictitious plates just to avoid being detected by electronic traffic law enforcement (ETLE) cameras. The chips and QR codes will help the police tell apart fake license plates and the real ones.

The police have been keeping an eye on passing vehicles via the ETLE cameras to detect any traffic violations.

Previously, the police would have its officers pull over traffic offenders and issue tickets at the scene. However, they decided to replace this "manual ticketing" with e-ticketing to avoid traffic policemen from taking bribes. But people are coming up with ways to avoid getting an e-ticket. 

Many people have been taking their license plates off their vehicles just so the camera could not detect the vehicle tag, according to Police Traffic Corps head Inspector General Firman Shantyabudi.

“There are also people who use fictitious, unstandardized license plates bought from street vendors,” Firman was quoted as saying by Antara news agency on Tuesday.

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The traffic corps is mulling over combining e-ticketing and manual ticketing.

“This is something we should consider. People are not becoming more aware [of the traffic law] once they get a ticket. Instead, they are getting rid of and replacing their license plates. Some even deliberately break the traffic law,” he added.

Firman reminded the public to refrain from buying fictitious license plates. He added the police would improve the quality of the license plates to avoid any unstandardized ones. 

“We will soon have electric vehicles coming [into our roads]. We will ramp up our traffic patrols, so people would be compliant,” Firman said.

Firman also likened those who take off their tags to motorbike gang outlaws.

“Most of the gang members take off their back license plates. We will stop any vehicle that does not have its license plate displayed at the back."

The police first announced the plan to install QR codes and chips on license plates in early 2022, but it is still a work in progress to this day.