State officials are changing their system for reviewing personalized license plates after multiple complaints about a plate that reads “DEPORTM” were quashed on their way up the chain of command, a Utah official told legislators on Wednesday.
“If someone in that decision ladder decides that it’s not offensive, then it doesn’t matter how many times a citizen complains — it just hits that point,” said Scott Smith, executive director of the Utah Tax Commission, which oversees the Division of Motor Vehicles. “That was a weakness in our system.”
That's what happened to multiple complaints lodged with the DMV since the plate was approved in 2015, Smith told the Utah Administrative Rules Review Committee.