MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Police opposition has led state officials to scrap a cost-saving move to do away with front license plates on cars registered in Vermont.

The move to one plate would have saved about $150,000 a year, said Motor Vehicle Commissioner Bonnie Rutledge. Some 28 states and Canadian provinces use only one plate per vehicle, she said.

Rutledge was ready to make the proposal to legislators, but decided against it after hearing from police.

“They have valid concerns,” she said.

Having plates in both the front and back gives police one more opportunity to identify or make a judgment about a car, said Walt Decker, deputy chief of the Burlington Police Department.

Decker, a former Customs officer, said the front plates also make passage through a border crossing quicker because an officer can type in the plate number as the car approaches and have information handy before the driver reaches the window.

Officers rely on a mirror to identify cars with only rear plates, and that takes a few seconds longer, he said.

Rutledge, like other state department heads, is under pressure from Gov. Jim Douglas to cut her budget. The license plates, which are made at the women’s prison in Windsor, were going to be one place to make cuts. The department already stands to lose six middle management jobs, she said.