Screening system let Nazi licence plates slip through

An Alaska agency plans to update its electronic screening system after issuing personalised licence plates reading ‘‘FUHRER’’ and ‘‘3REICH’’ and later recalling them because of complaints.

A review by the state Department of Administration found that the same person owned both plates at different times.

The ‘‘FUHRER’’ plate was issued over a decade ago, and the department’s Division of Motor Vehicles had little information on how requests for personalised plates were processed back then, according to the report. It said the division recalled the plate last October after a complaint.

The application for the ‘‘3REICH’’ plate was made last October, but the term was not flagged because it wasn’t on a list of more than 11,000 ‘‘vulgar, violent, criminal and demeaning terms’’ used by an electronic system to screen plate requests. The plate was issued in November but was recalled on January 21.

The Nazi regime in Germany often was referred to as the Third Reich, with its leader, Adolf Hitler, known as the Fuhrer.

A member of Alaska’s Human Rights Commission was ousted for comments she made about the controversy. Jamie Allard said on social media that ‘‘fuhrer’’ in German meant leader, and that ‘‘reich’’ meant realm. ‘‘If you speak the language fluently, you would know that the English definition of the word, the progressives have put a spin on it and created their own definition,’’ she wrote.

The department said that ‘‘3REICH’’, ‘‘FUHRER’’ and variations of those terms were being added to the electronic screening list.