Sketchy. Why would he want to go this route when he could just have a plate issued without any trouble? There is another story here, I'd think.

Quoting parts I found most interesting:

Internal police records show Acting Police Sgt. Stephen Schulz, who headed the Longmont Police Department’s narcotics unit, took the unclaimed recovered license plate from the police department’s property and evidence room and began using the plate on an unmarked take-home police car.

Internal police documents show the license plate issue caused controversy at the Longmont Police Department because the use of the plate skirted the way undercover license plates are supposed to be issued.

In an internal May 5th police memo, Longmont Police Commander Eric Hulett wrote he found the use of evidence room license plates on undercover take-home vehicles “to be very alarming and out of alignment with the proper practice of having the state issue special license plates for undercover police officers.”

[....] The internal police memo issued in May stated that nobody at the police department kept track of which evidence room license plates were being used and which officers were using the plates at any given time.

[....]

“At best, this would be circumventing established and proper city practices and at worst could be interpreted as an attempt to pay someone under the table, to hide an embarrassing mistake made by the unit,” the memo stated.

“I was also concerned that Acting Sgt. Schulz was trying to get my permission to circumvent normal procedures, and if circumstances had been slightly different, he may not have told me about it at all,” the memo from Hulett continued. “I also was very curious how he managed to run up a toll bill in excess of $1,000 in just nine months of driving his departmental take home vehicle.” [....] “This allowed them to operate with no tracking or accountability should someone call and complain on that license plate,” the memo further stated. Hulett in the memo said he worried the situation could potentially lead to “allegations of cover-up or inappropriate activity by the police, etc. This practice has been going on for years, but there was no specific policy or procedure about it.”

Schulz and three other officers in the narcotics unit were placed on paid administrative leave for months while the city retained the Denver-based Investigations Law Group to investigate the narcotic’s unit workplace environment. Another officer had accused Schulz of using an epithet used against homosexuals to describe the way the officer looked for wearing a mask to protect himself from the COVID-19 virus, records show.

After that probe, the narcotics unit, which was called the special enforcement unit, was disbanded and folded into other operations at the police department.