The Register found that the confidential plate program shields these motorists in ways most of us can only dream about:

* Vehicles with protected license plates can run through dozens of intersections controlled by red light cameras and breeze along the 91 toll lanes with impunity.

* Parking citations issued to vehicles with protected plates are often dismissed because the process necessary to pierce the shield is too cumbersome.

* Some patrol officers let drivers with protected plates off with a warning because the plates signal that the drivers are "one of their own" or related to someone who is.

Another example of abuse was vehicles that go through automated toll booths without paying and typically aren't tracked down and fined.

The Register used public records laws to obtain OCTA computer logs for the 91 (freeway) Express Lanes and found 14,535 unpaid trips by motorists with confidential plates in the past five years. A Register analysis showed that was 3,722 separate vehicles, some running the toll road hundreds of times.

Kudos to the Register for diligent journalism, revealing how a government secrecy program with limited intent grew incrementally over time and inevitably came to be badly misused.