I see so many missing plates these days in SoCal. Also no plate on the front. I point them out to my wife sometimes when I am bored, we'll see dozens on a 10 minute trip. I'm told by a friend who is a DA (in California) that police here are not legally allowed to stop you today for plate violations. Instead, they are only allowed to issue fines for plate violations as part of another routine stop. I also have a neighbor has a temporary paper plate on one of his vehicles that expired over 14 months ago. If there's no incentive to care then people won't care, I guess.
When I lived in Los Angeles a long time ago I didn't drive much so I never got around to renewing my plates (from another state). For nearly two years, it was never a problem.
