Philadelphia Department of Transportation – Solve Your Own License Plate “Cold Case”

On television’s “Cold Case,” Philadelphia Detective Lilly Rush solves cases that have been lying dormant with no new clues for years. She has access to the databases of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and that information often helps her to get the information she needs to crack the case.

Some people wish that they had a detective like Lilly Rush on their side, turning the entire state of Pennsylvania on its head until she cracks the case. But, unfortunately, some people are on their own when it comes to gathering sensitive, personal information; they may not even be able to get help from the police.

For example, if you have a license plate number and don’t have any other leads, you can’t simply march into the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and demand to see all of the information that they have pertaining to that license plate number. They aren’t authorized to release that kind of sensitive information to a private citizen.

The same privacy laws that prevent the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation from helping you also apply to the Pennsylvania police departments. They cannot give out sensitive information to the public either. Even if you know a police officer personally, it would be illegal for them to do so. But, there must be a way to get the information you need.

Luckily, the answer is ‘yes.’ You can use a private database to do many kinds of research about someone or a car or truck. Many private companies now make it their business to maintain databases of personal records. With a license plate number or VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) you can do a reverse search which may help you get a wide variety of information.

Since the companies that maintain these databases obtain all of their information legally, it is completely legal for them to distribute it to the general public. Because of these private databases, regular members of the public are able to legitimately get the information they have been searching for so long, without breaking the law.

It is normal for these private database companies to charge a small fee to people who want to search their databases, so you should be prepared to pay a small amount for the information that they give you. But, most people are glad to finally have a way to get the information that they need. Access to this information can be crucial to regular people, who may need it for a variety of reasons. Until these private databases existed, they had no way of obtaining it. Different databases are privately maintained, so it is expected that they do not all contain the same information. One database might have information that another does not. Just like a detective, you must be persistent in your search, and consider using more than one database, so you will have a variety of leads to follow. If you are persistent, you will eventually get the information you need.

To help you contact the owner of a vehicle registered in Pennsylvania, Public Records expert Dylan Finkerton has written a simple guide to finding the owner of an Pennsylvania license plate. Conducting a reverse license plate search in Pennsylvania will get you more information about the car and driver.