When the state authorized specialty license plates for the Fraternal Order of Police three years ago, the idea was to give law enforcement officers a way to show pride in their profession.

But Michael Ratledge of McClellanville said he thinks they serve a more underhanded purpose: giving police officers and their families a free pass to speed and ignore traffic laws on South Carolina's roads.

Law enforcement officials say they have received no similar complaints, and they haven't seen anything to suggest the tags are allowing some drivers to skirt the law with impunity.

Ratledge regularly commutes to Columbia for his job with the U.S. Department of Justice. He said he's often left in the dust on Interstate 26 by cars adorned with the blue-striped plates bearing a badge insignia and the letters "LE" to denote law enforcement.

Behind the wheel are officers and their family members, tooling along at 90 mph or more in their personal vehicles and placing other motorists at risk, Ratledge said. Though he's spotted state troopers along his route, Ratledge said, he's never seen one pull over a scofflaw with these "get out of jail free" license tags.

"They totally disregard any traffic laws and speed limits," he said. "They are putting themselves completely above the law. ... There is no reason for (the plates) other than to get a free pass."

Fraternal Order of Police members argue that the tag is no different from the 38 other specialty plates authorized by the state to celebrate groups and interests such as firefighters, fraternities and golf, and to promote causes such as ending pet homelessness and keeping the state beautiful.

"This is just a way for us to display our pride in being police officers," said Chuck Canterbury of Myrtle Beach, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. "Many states have them."

Canterbury has one of the FOP plates on his car, but it didn't stop him from getting pulled over in the mountains of North Carolina this year for driving 6 mph over the speed limit.

He got off with a warning, but so did another driver who was pulled over without the special plate, he said.

Canterbury said claims that the plates give officers and their families the power to ignore traffic laws are "absolutely ludicrous."

"The way society holds police officers to a higher standard, it would probably be easier for them to get away with it with an unknown tag," he said.

Ratledge is convinced otherwise. In the past few months, he said, at least half of the speeders who have blown by him on the interstate have sported the law enforcement specialty tags.

"This is being abused," he said. "Obviously, it is my belief that they should follow the law just like anyone else."

Some state troopers equate the plates with stickers people place on their cars to show they've donated to one law enforcement association or another.

Drivers might think such tokens will get them out of a ticket, but they won't, said Sid Gaulden, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

"It doesn't give anyone special dispensation to violate traffic laws," he said. "If you're speeding, you're speeding."

ABOUT THE PLATES

-- What: Fraternal Order of Police license plates

-- Who can have them: Only members of the organization -- active or retired law enforcement officers

-- How many are out there: 935 of them had been sold as of July, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles

-- When they were introduced: The Legislature approved the plates in 2002