How do police know if you are insured?

**Wasted** · 01-20-2012, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by moe-2

OPP has access to MTO (Insurance Companies provide the information to MTO who updates the system when plates are run) and they get real time data information on insurance status.

Can't speak for TPS or other services.

Glad your doing well JohnnyP636. Thanks again for the summer stuff you helped me out with!!

Can you state the source of this information because I work in the industry and can assure you that there is no real time database.

**moe-2** · 01-20-2012, 09:09 PM

Know of this.

**moe-2** · 01-20-2012, 09:13 PM

people who have been convicted of operate/permit no insurance.

**Wasted** · 01-20-2012, 09:21 PM

So I go out and get an insurance policy, go to the MTO and get plates and walk out the door. The next day I call my insurance company and cancel my policy but still have a liability slip that say I have coverage until the end of the year. Later that day you pull me over and run my plate and can tell right then and there that I don't have insurance on my car?
I'm not trying to be a ****** or anything it's just that when I was a broker I'd get calls to verify insurance all the time. And in my current role I sometime have to call a PC to advise that a driver involved in an accident was uninsured at the time of the accident. Shouldn't that PC already know that?

This is something that I just found now. There is a quote from an OPP constable stating that he wishes that he had the capability of confirming valid insurance at the scene.

http://www.thestar.com/news/investig...free-ride?bn=1

**moe-2** · 01-20-2012, 09:35 PM

I totally agree with what you just said. And by no means are you being a ****** .

**Wasted** · 01-20-2012, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by moe-2

I totally agree with what you just said. And by no means are you being a ****** .

When I say real time I mean it in the sense that once you call your insurance company and cancel it, they forward information to MTO who now updates it in their system. Now I am not sure how long it takes the insurance company to inform MTO, but from my knowledge ( and a few others on the forum can attest to how I know this) and from expereince it has been accurate within TWO days of when buddy canceled it, to when the officer ran the plates( if the plates are not unattached) the information appeared via MTO ISS

Well I'll be hogtied in a pepper squash. I'm going to look into this a bit further on my end. Maybe I've just been out of the service side too long or maybe there are only certain circumstances that this occurs. I remember when the MTO launched the database to validate vins with active policies but that was only for plate renewal reasons. I'll bounce it off the ops guys and see what they come back with.

**murf** · 01-21-2012, 03:09 PM

Last time I was pulled over by OPP he specifically asked for my licence and Not my insurance, I then asked would you like my insurance and he said he already knew I had insurance.

**sleezyray** · 01-22-2012, 03:16 AM

For what it's worth, this is what happened to a friend. He cleaned out his car, and i mean cleaned out everything. That evening, he was stopped by three cruisers for no headlights. He had his liscence, insurance and ownership home. So cop pulls him over, he has nothing on him. They go into the cruiser for like 20 minutes then gave him a warning to carry his documents at all times. Now am thinking to myself that there is no way they will let him go at 12 midnight if they could not verify his claim that the car is insured so obvioursly, cops have a means of verifying that a car is insured or not. Just saying.

A new technology out there will allow cops to scan plates while driving and weed out uninsured motorist. Don't know if its in Canada yet.

I also know this young kid who rode a cbr 600 last year without insurance. Got smashed very mildly at an intersection, bike is disabled, he is slightly injured so can't run. Now he is in a pile of you know what. Think long term my friends. Don't risk it.

**elton_t** · 01-22-2012, 07:16 AM

Some people are giving wrong information on here, visitors beware. Please don't post what you think to mislead others, if you have nothing to say don't say.

**bitzz** · 01-22-2012, 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by sleezyray

...

A new technology out there will allow cops to scan plates while driving and weed out uninsured motorist. Don't know if its in Canada yet.

....

Peel police have the camera/scanner system... and it is operational.

**nakkers** · 01-22-2012, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by Wasted

So I go out and get an insurance policy, go to the MTO and get plates and walk out the door. The next day I call my insurance company and cancel my policy but still have a liability slip that say I have coverage until the end of the year. Later that day you pull me over and run my plate and can tell right then and there that I don't have insurance on my car?
I'm not trying to be a ****** or anything it's just that when I was a broker I'd get calls to verify insurance all the time. And in my current role I sometime have to call a PC to advise that a driver involved in an accident was uninsured at the time of the accident. Shouldn't that PC already know that?

This is something that I just found now. There is a quote from an OPP constable stating that he wishes that he had the capability of confirming valid insurance at the scene.

http://www.thestar.com/news/investig...free-ride?bn=1

Link to artical is dated June 2010. I know there has been updates with the insurance data access since.

**Two50noob** · 01-22-2012, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by elton_t

Some people are giving wrong information on here, visitors beware. Please don't post what you think to mislead others, if you have nothing to say don't say.

But i get all my legal advice on the internet..People cant post untrue things on the internet.

BRB have to feed my Pet dragon

**LittleSaki** · 01-23-2012, 07:15 PM

This is one of the funniest threads in a while. If you don't know the true answer, don't post. If you do know the answer keep it to yourself as these stupid kids don't need to know this information - let them find out.
These are the kind of people we don't need on the road.

**Wasted** · 01-23-2012, 07:43 PM

Well after a conversation with a guy who was involved in the implementation of the system i concede to moe-2. About a year ago the mto, insurance companies, and the opp joined forces and now have a relative real time database. It's not instantaneous but might as well be. At this time however, it is only the opp that has access to this information. Sorry for being out of the loop on this and supplying inaccurate info.