HONOLULU – With personalized license plate requests on the upswing in the City and County of Honolulu, drivers on O‘ahu are being reminded about existing rules designed to rein in offensive language they try to affix to Hawaiʻi license plates.
Applications for personalized license plates rose 12 percent last year on O‘ahu after decreasing the previous year following a fee increase for the service.
The city’s Division of Motor Vehicles reviews all personalized plate applications and rejects the ones that violate the existing rules, including letter and number combinations that are profane, encourage violence or hate, refer to genitalia as well as make sexual references.
“With license plates being a very visible aspect of any vehicle, our focus remains on applying clear, objective and reasonable guidelines for the letter and number combination in applications we receive for personalized license plates,” said Kim Hashiro, director of the city’s Department of Customer Services, which administers DMV services in the City and County of Honolulu.
Personalized license plates cost a motorist $60 annually in addition to all other motor vehicle licensing fees and taxes. Applications are available online or at satellite city hall locations.
For more information, visit www.honolulu.gov/csd.
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