Look up an Alabama plate
See whether other drivers have filed reports against a plate.
A plate with no reports comes back clean — that is the common result, and it is not an error.
Avoidance & safety rules
- Do not follow or pursue the vehicle, under any circumstances.
- Do not try to read or photograph the plate if doing so means getting closer or driving unsafely.
- Do not engage. No gestures, no eye contact, no reply to an aggressive driver.
- Keep your distance and let them pass. Pull over somewhere public before you make a call, or have a passenger call.
- Note details only if it is safe: make, model and colour, full or partial plate, direction of travel, and the exact location or mile marker.
Does a Jerk Alert report reach the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA)? No — Jerk Alert filings are community records between drivers. They never reach the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), any other government body, or law enforcement, and they do not replace the calls in sections 1 and 2. If you are in danger, call 911. The Terms prohibit following, approaching, or identifying another driver on any Jerk Alert platform.
Alabama bad driver reporting & safety guide
1. If it is happening now immediate danger
Emergency hotlines
- 911 — for a driver who is an active danger to other people right now. That is a police matter, and no app is a substitute for the call.
- *HP (*47) — Alabama Law Enforcement Agency / Highway Patrol. Highway patrol line for dangerous driving as it happens.
It reaches a dispatcher who may send a trooper to a driver still on the road — use it while the driving is happening, and 911 for an immediate danger. ALEA publishes the code as *HP: its Highway Patrol contact information page reads "For emergencies, please dial 911 or *HP." The digits are *47.
2. Reporting to Alabama law enforcement after the fact
Neither the hotlines above nor anything in this section is the licence-review route in section 3, and nothing filed on Jerk Alert reaches any of them.
Who takes the report in Alabama
- The non-emergency line of the Alabama municipal police department or county sheriff’s office with jurisdiction where it happened takes reports of dangerous driving that has already happened.
- Bring: the plate (full or partial) and state, the vehicle’s make, model and colour, the location, the date and time, the direction of travel, and what you saw.
- Expect a record rather than a ticket. An officer who did not witness the driving usually cannot cite for it, and what each agency acts on varies.
3. State DMV & licensing agency review
Public reporting accessNo — citizens cannot report drivers to this agency
A review of a driver’s licence can only be started by someone in a defined role.
Who can file: Not a member of the public. ALEA publishes no citizen reporting route: its medical-standards rule names DL17, the Driver Condition or Behavior Report, but neither the rule nor any ALEA page says who may submit one, and the form is not published (Ala. Admin. Code ch. 760-X-20).
There is nothing here a member of the public can actually file.
Administrative fitness process
How a review starts and runs once someone in a qualifying role refers the driver.
- Agency
- Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA)
- Unit
- Driver License Division
- The department acts when it learns that a person applying for, renewing or holding an operator's licence has a progressive, recurring or debilitating medical condition which may affect safe driving; it may then require the person to provide medical information (760-X-20-.03).
- The information the department and its review boards may consider includes a physician's medical report and recommendations, reports of driver condition or behavior, the results of a department vision or hearing screening, knowledge and driving-ability examinations, alcohol or drug assessment reports, traffic accidents that may have been caused by a medical condition, a vision specialist's report, and a person's failure to provide requested information (760-X-20-.04).
- A licence may be restricted on the recommendation of a physician, a vision specialist or a review board, or on the results of a driving examination or evaluation (760-X-20-.03(2)).
Where the agency cannot determine whether a person can drive safely, the driver gets written notice and 14 days to submit information.
What can the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) do once a review starts?
- Where the department cannot determine whether a person can drive safely, the case goes to a review board — a panel of three doctors who specialise in the condition — which may assess the person's medical history and make a recommendation (760-X-20-.18).
- The department may restrict the operating privilege: corrective lenses, specially equipped vehicles, a hearing aid, daylight driving only, a restricted driving area, or any other restriction it deems necessary for safety (760-X-20-.15).
- It may require a person with a progressive, recurring or debilitating condition to submit follow-up examinations and reports as a condition of licensure (760-X-20-.16), and a driving evaluation where a physician or vision specialist recommends a test of driving ability (760-X-20-.17).
- Written notice of any medical licensing action is sent by first class mail, and a notice of denial or cancellation must give the specific reasons and the applicable review and appeal procedures (760-X-20-.19).
- A person denied, suspended, revoked or cancelled for medical reasons may request an administrative hearing within 14 days of notice, before an independent hearing officer, held in Montgomery, Mobile, Birmingham or Huntsville (760-X-20-.20).
Alabama is one of 18 of 51 US jurisdictions where a witness unrelated to the driver has no confirmed way to report them to the licensing agency (the 51-location study). That gap is one reason Jerk Alert exists.
Jerk Alert