Whiskey Plates

Under current Minnesota DWI laws, if a person receives more than two DWI convictions or license revocations within ten years (also known as a ten year look back period), the normal Minnesota driver's license plates may be revoked and replaced with what are commonly called as whiskey plates. The license plates in Minnesota start with a W and are often seen as WX, WY, WZ, WR,WS, WT, etc. These plates start with clearly identifiable letters that identify the vehicle to police officer as a vehicle that is driven by a person with more than one DWI offense on his or her driving record.

Whiskey plates are significant since they may provide law enforcement officer with a reason to stop your vehicle for a petty offense.  The law in Minnesota still says that the police can stop any vehicle displaying whiskey plates for no reason, however the Minnesota Supreme Court has held that the law is unconstitutional and that and that the police still need a reasonable articulable basis to stop a vehicle, even if they are displaying whiskey plates.

If you have Whiskey plates You need to be very careful driving around bar closing and be aware that if you driving even 1 mile per hour over the speed limit that grants the police reason to stop you.