Hit and run caught on cameras...Help identify blurry license plate

[MrAntonius]

Looks to me like second and third characters are ZV. Maybe third number is 3. Can the police or insurance company search with partials? Is there public access to the plate database here in Texas? Might be fun to do that on your own if available.

Did that large chunk of car have any identifying numbers on it so it could be linked to a VIN? Not sure that is a thing but seems like it could be.

 

[Rountad]

I asked the police earlier and they said that they can't search a partial plate number. I didn't even consider looking for a vin on the dropped parts. That's good thinking, but they were disposed of by the wrecker driver to make the street more passable.

 

[KenC]

Looks to me like second and third characters are ZV. Maybe third number is 3. Can the police or insurance company search with partials? Is there public access to the plate database here in Texas? Might be fun to do that on your own if available.

Did that large chunk of car have any identifying numbers on it so it could be linked to a VIN? Not sure that is a thing but seems like it could be.

Agreed on the ZV, that's what I thought.

 

[flyingowl]

Well, its a Texas plate so its 3 letters followed by 4 numbers....

Well done. Case closed!

 

[whiskeylover]

It's either a 2 or a an eggplant emoji.

On a serious note, what do you plan on doing with the information? You literally pay your insurance company to do this work for you.

 

[Stranger Dings]

Yes, I looked at all the cameras. The left side camera showed the hit, parts flying, and that he had no front plate. It did not get any view of the rear plate. The front camera was the only one that got a view of the plate.

Of course, I forgot that you don’t have front plates in the US. All cars have to have them in the UK, for exactly the reason you have discovered. Sometimes knowing what is coming at you can be useful.

Hope you get it sorted. Good luck

 

[jjrandorin]

Of course, I forgot that you don’t have front plates in the US. All cars have to have them in the UK, for exactly the reason you have discovered. Sometimes knowing what is coming at you can be useful.

Hope you get it sorted. Good luck

Most states have a rule that you need front places in the US, actually. Not all, but "most". Thing is, many people ignore that rule, and law enforcement typically doesnt enforce it strictly, unless there is something else going on. Again thats all generalized, but its not correct to say "The US doesnt have front plates" or "front plate laws".

 

[Rountad]

It's either a 2 or a an eggplant emoji.

On a serious note, what do you plan on doing with the information? You literally pay your insurance company to do this work for you.

My insurance company doesn't even accept mpeg4 files through their app. I sent the blurry vidcap jpg of the rear of the car to them and the police, but I'm not optimistic. I'm guessing that if I gave both of them a definitive license plate number that I'd get much better results and maybe get a felon off the roads for a while.

 

[kavyboy]

I asked the police earlier and they said that they can't search a partial plate number.

In other words, "Go away, you're bothering us." I'd take that as a hint.

 

[TexasTezla]

Well done. Case closed!

Ha! Dont quite think you understood...some people were saying they thought the first three were numbers...so I corrected them by letting everyone know that in Texas it is 3 letters followed by 4 numbers so they could not be numbers...unless it is a personalized plate. Hope that helps you understand...

 

[KenC]

Yeah, I now think it's something-ZV-2958. It's the first letter I'm not sure about.

 

[father_of_6]

That only leaves 26 different plate numbers to check. And *this* is ridiculous:

I asked the police earlier and they said that they can't search a partial plate number.

Can their systems really be that incompetent?

 

[kavyboy]

That only leaves 26 different plate numbers to check. And *this* is ridiculous:

Can their systems really be that incompetent?

When I was a kid, we had a window broken and some stuff stolen from our cabin. Called the police. Dad noticed there was no broken glass on the ground; they must have tossed it in the adjacent ravine. It was there with the most beautiful fingerprints you've ever seen, even from a distance. Officer glanced at them and said they wouldn't be helpful. Little me learned something that day about how minor, non-revenue-generating crimes are "investigated".

 

[stopcrazypp]

I asked the police earlier and they said that they can't search a partial plate number. I didn't even consider looking for a vin on the dropped parts. That's good thinking, but they were disposed of by the wrecker driver to make the street more passable.

Here's my effort using frame stacking. I only aligned 7 images by hand, but didn't do any scaling.
Median stack:

Frame averaging:

Looks like BZV-7881 as a guess? But overall still way too low resolution to work with, made worse by motion blur and the car pulling away (would be a different case for a parked car or if it stay relatively same size in frame, like if car was following).

It can be narrowed down by looking at the model of the car. You can see from a search it's a 2009-2013 Lexus IS (that was when they refreshed the taillights).
Lexus IS - Wikipedia

Note some police stations have something called Amped Five. If you give them the raw footage (not the one you provided, which was already cut out from a larger video using VLC and may have been recompressed or at least the stream was put in a new container, I'm talking about the actual full clip straight from TeslaCam), it can do wonders in terms of tracking the plate in the footage and then doing automatic enhancement. Not cheap at $4000, but can be cheaper with grants and it's not much for a police department (if they get a decent amount of cases needing license plate ID from footage).
Amped Five - American Cop
To Us “Nice” is Not Enough: Learn How to Further Improve Your Super Resolution Images in Amped FIVE

 

[Stranger Dings]

Most states have a rule that you need front places in the US, actually. Not all, but "most". Thing is, many people ignore that rule, and law enforcement typically doesnt enforce it strictly, unless there is something else going on. Again thats all generalized, but its not correct to say "The US doesnt have front plates" or "front plate laws".

Very interesting to hear that it isn’t always enforced in the US. The UK police totally enforce all UK road laws very vigorously, even the font that the plate is in and positioning of securing screws can lead to a fine.

They’re not so quick if you’ve had your car broken into, but slightly over-tinted windows, they’ll be there in a (blue) flash.

 

[Sam1]

Very interesting to hear that it isn’t always enforced in the US. The UK police totally enforce all UK road laws very vigorously, even the font that the plate is in and positioning of securing screws can lead to a fine.

They’re not so quick if you’ve had your car broken into, but slightly over-tinted windows, they’ll be there in a (blue) flash.

Here in Nevada they give us front plates, and almost all of us put them in a bin in the garage and forget they exist. Cops are not allowed to pull you over for not having it installed, so no one cares about it.

 

[RayK]

Generally, over the 50 years I've been driving, California cops do not bother with giving out a ticket for no front plate unless you've been stopped for another infraction. Two times I've been given a "fix-it" ticket for a missing front plate but that was only when I was pulled over for speeding. The first one was back in the '80s and the second one right after getting my Model 3. All of the other times the cops either did not bother with walking around to the front of the car or they did not care. Sometimes the police will say that they are pulling you over for a missing front plate but only as a pretext (i.e., excuse) for some other check; like seeing if the driver may be impaired (alcohol or drugs).

 

[TexasTezla]

Very interesting to hear that it isn’t always enforced in the US. The UK police totally enforce all UK road laws very vigorously, even the font that the plate is in and positioning of securing screws can lead to a fine.

They’re not so quick if you’ve had your car broken into, but slightly over-tinted windows, they’ll be there in a (blue) flash.

And yet try and get a UK copper to take a house break in seriously...note: they dont!

 

[JackLuminous]

That only leaves 26 different plate numbers to check. And *this* is ridiculous:

Can their systems really be that incompetent?

That's complete BS if their system can't do that. A plate number is just a string and there other attributes that could be used such as the make, model, and possible colour.

 

[Mark2018s]

Our cars need cameras with better resolution. As technology improves, so should this...its one of the main selling features of the car IMO.