1. All entries in the Looking Beyond the License Plate award program must be based on license plate observations by duly sworn law enforcement officers or information from license plate observations by citizens and provided to law enforcement officials. Each entry must be signed and submitted by the observing officer’s agency head or superior officer.
2. All entries in the award program must be based on license plate observations occurring between June 1 and May 31 of the following year.
3. All entries for the award program must be postmarked by May 31.
4. Entries and supporting data are the property of 3M and cannot be returned.
5. A panel of judges selected by the IACP Highway Safety Committee determine the winners of the Looking Beyond the License Plate award program. Winners will be notified by August 31. The decision of the judges is final.
6. Categories of winners include Grand Prize and Honorable Mention awards. Only duly sworn law enforcement officers are eligible for awards.
7. 3M reserves the right to publicize the winners’ names and the details of each winner’s Looking Beyond the License Plate incident as part of a national and local law enforcement awareness program.

Judging Criteria

1. Entry based on observation of license plate is key (initial) element in incident; definite information about what was observed, whether it was a result of a lookout notice for a particular plate or part of a systematic approach used by the officer or department for a specific law enforcement program.
2. Thorough and professional police work by officer(s) to solve crime or to make arrest stemming from license plate observation;
3. Resulting benefit to community, law enforcement, public and highway safety;
4. Element(s) of danger or risk to officer(s), citizens and crime victims; details of how officer recognized danger, took effective steps to reduce risks to law enforcement personnel, crime victims, and citizens.
5. Thoroughness of submitted entry (e.g., simply stating "See attached report" in lieu of completing each section.) Attachments are encouraged, but concise descriptions are required.

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