PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Some legislators and most of the police are squaring off with the governor over the small stickers that are supposed to be on Rhode Island vehicle registration plates.
The police want to keep them, the governor doesn't, and now a state Senate commission looking at the Division of Motor Vehicles has recommended they stay.
The commission voted 7 to 1 Friday morning to keep the stickers, making that part of its recommendations to the General Assembly. The only "no" vote came from Anthony Silva, Chafee's administrator of the DMV since his appointment last August.
The police say the stickers are a basis for stopping cars and discovering easily whether they are properly registered.
With stickers front and back for about 900,000 registered vehicles, that's 1.8 million stickers. The administration sees them as a waste of money, at $250,000 per year plus postage, and unnecessary in an age of police cars with laptop computers.