New Kansas instant verification of car insurance disappoints. Keep those cards handy | Opinion (2025)

Kansas will soon be setting up a system to provide electronic verification of auto insurance.

But sadly, we’ll still have to keep carrying those pesky proof-of-insurance cards for the foreseeable future.

Like many Kansans, I get a new one every six months. And also like many Kansans, I try to remember to throw it in the glove compartment.

But every time I get pulled over for a traffic stop, I wind up having to go on the equivalent of an archaeological expedition to find it.

Somehow, insurance cards always end up buried somewhere amid other insurance cards (expired), registration forms (also expired), owner’s manuals, free maps from visitor centers, repair receipts, tire warranties, McDonald’s Happy Meal toys and all the other random junk that goes in the glove box when you don’t have anyplace else to stash it.

Meanwhile, the cop stares daggers at my back, while I keep saying over my shoulder, “Just give me a minute, I know it’s here somewhere.”

Then it turns out the newest one I have is recently expired and the current one is sitting on the kitchen counter at home, because I forgot to put it in the car as soon as it came in the mail.

And yes, we can provide proof of insurance in electronic form. But in practice, that means having to hand over your smartphone to an officer, unlocked, which raises privacy concerns that have been addressed by some states, but not this one.

So imagine my delight when I got a press release in my inbox that began: “Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, today, announced that new legislation establishing a system for the instant verification of auto insurance has been signed into law.”

Finally! Instant verification.

Visions danced through my head of getting pulled over by a cop, having him enter my vehicle ID number in his car computer, or tablet, or cellphone, and having my proof of insurance immediately pop up on his screen.

Alas, it was a false vision. We’ll still have to carry our own proof of insurance.

“Really, the intent here is to cut down on the uninsured motorist rate for Kansas,” said Kyle Strathman, deputy chief of staff at the Kansas Department of Insurance. “It’s currently, by best estimates, sitting at about 8%. (At the) Department of Revenue, when you go to renew your your tags, for example, they check and verify that you have insurance. (But) there’s people that get insurance just so they can renew their tag, then they cancel it days later. This type of system that we’re envisioning with this new law would help cut into that.”

The system will also help police check whether you’re carrying a counterfeit insurance card, or possibly signed up for insurance by phone immediately after an accident, but before the cops got there, he said.

So the new system might help the state solve its problems. It doesn’t help us with ours.

We’ll still have to carry proof of insurance that officials from law enforcement or the DMV will be able to access from their own devices.

Will we ever not have to? Who knows?

“If that’s something the Legislature wants to take a look at down the road, they certainly can,” Strathman said.

Hello, Kansas Legislature? The 21st century is almost a quarter of the way gone. Can you please bring us into it? Thanks.

This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 5:16 AM.