The Ohio Department of Public Safety and Ohio State Highway Patrol support the two-license plate requirement because of three major considerations:

• Public safety – The front license plate is the only highly reflective item on the front of a motor vehicle. At night, this feature allows drivers to spot oncoming left-of-center vehicles with one headlight out or both headlights not lit (drunk drivers occasionally fail to turn on their headlights). It also allows motorists to spot vehicles at night which have become disabled on the road due to a crash or mechanical failure.
  
• Crime prevention/criminal apprehension – From school bus drivers who observe the front license plate of oncoming motor vehicles which pass their stopped school bus to neighborhood block watch groups which rely upon both front and rear license plates to report suspicious vehicles, the front license plate is both a crime deterrent and tool to apprehend.
  
  Often times witnesses and convenient store clerks use the front plate to identify suspect vehicles when crimes have been committed related to fuel theft and convenient store robberies.
  
• Law enforcement investigatory tool – When investigating hit/skip crashes, law enforcement officers rely upon eyewitness accounts and physical evidence to track down drivers who damage property, injure, and sometimes kill with a complete lack of social responsibility. The front license plate is sometimes the only lead officers possess. The front license plate proves critical as a law enforcement tool in daily auto larceny investigation, DUI enforcement, and even bank robbery and homicide investigations.

Currently, 31 states have both a front and a rear license plate requirement and two states (Connecticut and Massachusetts) have recently returned to using two license plates. Because license plates are cut from large sheets of metal, labor costs are not significantly less for producing one plate instead of two. One cost which may rise however are insurance deductibles which will be paid by innocent motorists who are involved in hit/skip crashes which can no longer be solved without a front license plate.

To our knowledge, there have been not any valid studies that reveal a front-license plate appreciably affects fuel efficiency. However, it is our contention that any potential cost savings would be offset by diminished public safety, crime prevention, and criminal apprehension.