I’m hoping you can help me with a question that one of our followers sent in.
At one point several firefighters had car license plate numbers that started with DFD. I know some still have the DFD plates.
The question is, were those plates reserved by the Secretary of State for Detroit Firefighters only?
If so, was this practice discontinued?
If you have any insights or stories related to the DFD plates I would love to share them. Please leave a comment below.
Hi Sheryl
OK, here is what I can remember:
The DFD license plate program came “about” 1970, I can’t remember for how long it lasted.
I also can’t recall how long the plates were good for.
One on the main persons running the program was an Officer at Engine 9 / Snorkel 1 / Chief 1
He is deceased, as that was 44 years ago.
Individually we would go to Eng 9 to fill out all the paper work.
Nobody from the Secretary of State was there, just him or another fireman. They handled everything.
I think that all the plates were there at Eng 9 and we took the top plate when we paid
If plates had only 3 numbers after DFD there could only be 999 plates available.
Probably he went to the Secretary of State to initiate the program, got the plates once they were made, got all paperwork, set up a meeting place, filled out the forms, passed out the plates to the guys and collected the money.
I do remember that some individuals wanted their plate to correspond to their fire department position , example. 200 for Chief of Department..201 Deputy and so forth, Also numbers for Department Doctor and other fire department positions that fell under the numbering system were wanted.
I have a feeling that if their plate number was in the pile they just pulled it for them. The problem we heard is when some deckie had some important persons number and they wanted to exchange it. We don’t know what happened.
I think if some deckie had the Chief of Department’s number, 200 he would give it up rather then make every transfer list for years to come. This was during the time of transfers for any reason and no reason.
Hope this helps
Wayne
At one time someone from the DFD arranged with the Sec. of State to reserve those plates for Detroit Fire Fighters. If you were lucky you could get your badge #. My first plate was 787 DFD. Later I was able to get 778 DFD, my badge #. I doubt that they would or could do it today.
The officer who handled the plates was Capt Jay Smith of Engine 9. I believe they did reserve the DFD series with someone at Sec of State. But we paid for the plates in advance, and provided our paper work. Then, one or more of the guys would actually go to Lansing with all the paper work and spend a few hours getting all the plates. Someone would then call us and say “the plates were in”. And we would go down and pick them up. I don’t remember how long the program lasted. But I have three DFD plates on the garage wall. Maybe I’ll have a look at the tabs or dates on them. I think plates were renewed yearly back then.