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Carrie Plamann's daughter and her family recently played license plate bingo on a road trip from Denver to Duluth, where Plamann lives. The game involves vying to be the first to spot plates from different states.
After her daughter's arrival, Plamann suggested awarding bonus points for spotting a "whiskey plate."
"She had no idea what I was talking about," Plamann said.
Plamann said she had only learned about the special license plates recently, despite having lived in Minnesota since the late 1970s. She contacted Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune's reader-driven community reporting project, to learn why the state issues them, who gets them and for how long.
These white license tags — known officially as special registration plates — always feature the letter "W" followed by a second letter and a series of numbers. Issued primarily to drivers convicted of driving drunk, they have taken on the nickname "whiskey plates" as whiskey represents the letter "W" in the NATO phonetic alphabet.
Minnesota is one of two states that under certain conditions require DWI offenders to surrender their traditional plates and replace them with whiskey plates — the other is Ohio. Georgia issues plates bearing a special series of numbers and letters in more limited circumstances following DWI offenses.
Under Minnesota law, courts are required to order drivers to display whiskey plates if their first DWI offense resulted from having a blood alcohol content (BAC) of at least 0.16% — twice the legal limit for driving. The special tags are also mandatory for drivers convicted of several DWIs within 10 years, DWI with a child under 16 in the vehicle, or refusing to take a BAC test within 10 years of a DWI conviction.