Did removal of N.B.’s front licence plates make solving crimes harder?

When a historic bell was stolen from a Fredericton church after Christmas, a security camera from a neighbouring property caught a photo of a pickup truck.

Fredericton police later shared the photo, but the camera could only catch the front of the truck, so “unfortunately, it didn’t include the licence plate,” said the church’s former minister, Ross Hebb.

“And I guess if we had the licence plate, you’d be down by the court covering a slightly different story.”

While a piece of the bell was recovered, the identity of the thief or thieves still remains unknown.

The theft is just the latest case to raise the question of the effectiveness of removing front licence plates, a change made in 2019 by the former Progressive Conservative government. 

At the time, then-public safety minister Carl Urquhart said that if the change led to a “big rush” of crime, bringing back front plates could be considered.

So has New Brunswick reached that big rush? The province’s current government says no, although one frequently hit business would disagree.

Not far from the church, a business in Hanwell has had its fair share of thefts in the past five years.

First it was catalytic converters from the company trucks or vans, and then another time it was the van itself. Most recently a 40-foot (12-metre) ladder was taken beside one of the outbuildings that the business built to house the van so it wouldn’t be taken a second time.

Jodi Harrington said she does “a bit of everything” at Classic Stoves and Fireplaces, a family business. 

Vehicle licence plates were never visible on security footage, she said.

“So it felt like every time a theft happened, it would be a conversation we would have with the RCMP officer, where he or she would say, ‘If only that front licence plate had been there.’ Because we would have gotten a really great shot of it because they’d pull right up to the building and right in front of our new cameras.

“And so for the most part, we feel that if the front licence plate had been there, it probably could have helped at least narrow down a little bit.”

“Pretty much every RCMP officer” that’s come to investigate after a theft has made a comment about how front licence plates would have made it easier to catch the perpetrators, Harrington said.

She described it as “disheartening ” to hear this said so often without the connection being made that more criminals might be caught if front plates were brought back.

Harrington said thefts have become so rampant in Hanwell that many of the local businesses in the industrial park she’s near have started an email group to share security camera photos of thieves.

The catalytic converters were never recovered, leaving the business with a $1,000 bill each time, she said. The ladder wasn’t found either, but the van with company markings was recovered from Salisbury.

“So it is a lot, you know, just grin and bear it,” Harrington said of the thefts. “That’s the nature of business, I guess.”

When New Brunswick stopped using front plates, it left only Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia requiring them in Canada. In the U.S., just over half of the 50 states still require front and back plates.

The Department of Justice and Public Safety did not make anyone available for an interview about how the province justifies the challenges that may come from not having front plates. 

A spokesperson from Service New Brunswick, which issues licence plates, directed a question about how much money the province had saved from just issuing one plate back to Justice and Public Safety.

Seven years out, the end to front licence plates in N.B. is being questioned

Minister Robert Gauvin was not made available for an interview but said in an email statement that government looked for data that demonstrates if removing front plates would reduce police effectiveness or make roads less safe.

“While one can find anecdotes about individual instances in which an investigation would have been easier if a vehicle has a front plate, there was then and is now no such data,” Gauvin said.

CBC News requested an interview with the RCMP to ask about what challenges they’ve had with policing since front plates were removed.

An interview was not made available.

Spokesperson Hans Ouellette did not directly answer the question, but in an email statement, said most provinces no longer have front plates, and the RCMP respects the province’s decision to continue only issuing one plate.

Back in 2019, the New Brunswick Association of Chiefs of Police had warned that removing front plates would take away a valuable tool for law enforcement. 

Saint John police Chief Robert Bruce, the association’s current president, said problems with not having front plates are not something his group tracks but chiefs are aware of them on an anecdotal basis.

“Anytime that you have a one less identifier on a vehicle, it makes it more difficult for us,” Bruce said.

He added that school bus drivers will also have a harder time identifying drivers who ignore a bus’s flashing red lights.

When asked about the example in Hanwell, Bruce said criminals can still find a workaround. 

“I think if you’re talking about high-end criminals, they’re not worried about a front plate, they’re not going to use any plates or they’re going to steal plates and put them on from another vehicle,” he said.

Bruce said his association does meet with government and has mentioned concerns about the lack of front plates, but said governments tend to be hesitant to go back on a decision already made. 

“So what we look at is going forward, right, OK, what are we going to do about this?”

Bruce said the association has asked the government to introduce stronger penalties, such as seizure of the vehicle, when people flee from police.