Connecticut Police Pull Over Man for Expired Car Registration. But the Driver Suspects Their Reason for Running His Plate: ‘Me While Driving Black’
He claimed he was racially profiled.
A man was on his way home when police officers in Bridgeport, Connecticut, pulled him over after running his plate and finding that his rented vehicle had an expired car registration. However, the man alleged that the reason the officers ran his plate and pressed the issue was because of his skin color.
@kingofconnecticut4 shared the incident in a video on TikTok, which has since accumulated over 916,600 views, along with on-screen text that said, “THIS IS ME DRIVING WHILE BLACK IN AMERICA.” According to kingofconnecticut4, he was stopped at a red light when the officers driving behind him allegedly ran a plate check before confronting the TikToker.
The officers informed kingofconnecticut4 that his vehicle’s registration had expired in February, but he claimed that he was unaware that the car’s registration had expired. He proceeded to tell the officers the car was a rental from Enterprise and that the issue regarding the registration should be handled by the company, as they owned the vehicle.
Police officer insists it is the vehicle operator’s due diligence
“It’s not my business. You gotta call Enterprise,” kingofconnecticut4 told the officer. “I’m sure if you ran the plate it’ll say Enterprise, if anything.” However, the officer argued that kingofconnecticut4 also had a responsibility to check the registration’s validity, as it was supposedly his due diligence as the operator of the vehicle, before requesting his driver’s license and the car’s registration.
The police turned the car’s registration towards kingofconnecticut4 and showed him where he could see the registration date, revealing that the car was registered on Feb. 5, 2025. “I don’t look at that, sir. When you sign the contract, they don’t give you that,” kingofconnecticut4 said. “You don’t know what car you’re gonna get. You don’t know what’s in the car.”
After a while, the officers requested that kingofconnecticut4 step out of the car as they inspected the vehicle, before one of the officers returned to their police cruiser. The second officer seemingly tried to de-escalate the situation and urged kingofconnecticut4 to contact Enterprise to request a new vehicle.
While waiting for the first officer, kingofconnecticut4 asked the other officer the reason why they ran his plate. “But what’s crazy is… what did I do illegal for him to even run the plate?” kingofconnecticut4 asked. “What made you want to run this plate of this car?”
The officer claimed that they didn’t need a reason to check a car’s plate, and that it is usually done at random. However, kingofconnecticut4 seemingly didn’t believe that was simply the reason, as he referenced being Black. The TikToker also claimed in his caption that the entire incident was Enterprise’s fault, and that the company had “put my life in danger” because of his encounter with the officers.
TikToker believes he was racially profiled
Viewers were divided by the incident. Some agreed that the police allegedly racially profiled kingofconnecticut4, while others argued that the officer was correct and that the TikToker had a stake in the responsibility.
“Cops are trained to target BLACKS at this point,” a comment read. “His partner knew he was on bs,” another read. A third comment said, “Hear me out. The cop isn’t wrong. But he is petty. The cop could’ve told him it was expired and that he needed to contact enterprise then kept it moving. He just wanted a reason.”
Others claimed that the fault is entirely on the rental company. “A car with expired plates shouldn’t be even available on the lot for rental. I’d sue the cop and the rental company,” a viewer said. Another viewer who claimed to have worked at the company agreed, saying, “Former enterprise employee they should’ve wrote us the ticket it’s not on the renter it’s on the company he did that because your black. Also it’s on enterprise cause they should’ve checked that before you rented that’s not on you.”
According to JD Power, officers have the right to run license plates without probable cause, as the letters and numbers on a plate are deemed public information and don’t violate privacy rights. But officers do need reasonable cause to pull over a vehicle.
Aside from manually scanning a plate, many police cruisers are also equipped with mobile automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which capture and scan multiple license plates in view in a matter of seconds. So it’s difficult to say whether this incident was a result of racial profiling. Nevertheless, kingofconnecticut4 said the incident concluded without him receiving a ticket.
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