By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Missourians who've had their license plate stickers stolen no longer have to file a police report to get new ones.
Governor Matt Blunt signed a bill into law Tuesday that requires only an affidavit from a license office to get free replacements.
He said the change is meant to help motorists, but Blunt also said it will reduce the number of nuisance offenses that appear on city crime statistics.
"If people feel it's appropriate to file the crime report, they indeed should," Blunt said. "But clearly, the large number of tab thefts have made St. Louis appear to be more dangerous than it really is. And this is going to help address that."
The law will be in effect until 2009, when Missouri will issue new license plates that will include better security features.
Revenue department officials said renewal stickers for those plates may have the plate number printed on the sticker. However the department has not made a final decision on that just yet.