Of course, I DO know what I'm doing and have for nearly the last 18 years. As a matter of fact, I'm so good at knowing what I'm doing, I get to supervise others who do what I do.
No form of Probable Cause or Reasonable Suspicion is needed to run a license plate. A license plate has absolutely NO expectation of privacy, and is therefore public. Because of that, we may run plates as often as we want, for no other reason than we saw it and we ran it. NOW, we may not run it for a malicious reason, such as to see who an ex-boy/girl friend has parked in front of their house, but barring some malicious intent, license plates and the Public VIN on dashboards or on the frame of motorcycles are fair game. Sorry Twigg!
If you don't believe me, Google, "Running license plates case law." Tons of relevant stuff pops up, and all the valid stuff informs people that license plates are not protected.
Your opinion on this subject is incorrect, as has been my opinion and others opinions on other matters. No big deal, don't freak out!