1. A method of processing an image, the method comprising the steps of: a computer determining a category specifying characteristics of a shape of a license plate of a vehicle; based on the category specifying the characteristics of the shape of the license plate, the computer determining characteristics of objects in the image match the characteristics of the shape of the license plate; the computer determining a category specifying characteristics of a background color of the license plate, the background color being a predominant color within the shape of the license plate, and the background color specifying a country, state, province, or other governmental jurisdiction required to be associated with any identifiable license plate; based on the category specifying characteristics of the background color of the license plate, the computer determining characteristics of the objects in the image do not match the characteristics of the background color of the license plate, based on the characteristics of the objects in the image not matching the characteristics of the background color of the license plate, the computer determining the image does not include an identifiable license plate; and in response to the step of determining the image does not include the identifiable license plate, the computer determining the image is invalid and bypassing a manual character recognition process for determining identifiers in license plates.