When I was 16 and wanting to get my license my dad told me if I see an officer behind me, no matter how far behind me to make the next right turn or pull into a parking lot. Let the officer get in front of me because cops only have one goal and that's to give ME a ticket. I'm 71 now and still following Daddy's advice.
Most cops are way to busy to write a cite. Traffic stops are used to investigate a situation which is a statistical anomaly. White and driving around South Central at 2am. You are getting stopped.
@@JohnGalt-vr3lx most cops are too busy????? To do what, their F'n job????? Do you think before you write or say anything 🤔 they show they're too busy to actually learn the laws they try to enforce or does them being too busy negate that for them???
@@MrSlicky77 too busy? These guys literally have 7 hours of a work day to drive around and just do whatever they want. Maybe 1 hour of their day is spent actually working.
I was pulled over by a motorcycle officer once, his reason was that I looked at him. I had a dash cam and brought it to court after he issued 2 other equipment violations and failure to wear corrective lenses. The judge watched the video and when he heard the officer say why he pulled me over dismissed all the violations.
Sucks, because you had to prove him wrong at your expense. Ridiculous, they ticket people mostly because they know most cant afford to take away off work to fight it. It's happened to me. Assholes.
These things often don't matter to the cop who will write tickets he KNOWS will be dismissed because; 1: He gets to count the stop/ contact towards his 'Quota'/ Performance requirement and; 2: he gets paid, (overtime usually), to go and sit in court while YOU, dear reader, have to take time off from work to go to court and try to fight it.
@@johnme7049 well I’d bet the district attorney and municipality that was forced to waste their docket time and resources to process such pointless cases would beg to differ. The taxpayers and the courts and their officers also loose in this.
I once got pulled over and the cop started asking me all these bizarre questions about chasing the car in front of me and speeding around corners, and after a while of me being completely confused he finally said, "Well I pulled you over because of the air freshener hanging from your mirror". Things like this are ridiculous. There should be no laws on the books that exist only to give cops reasons to harass you. Anyone who thinks its ok needs to have their head examined.
Hey dash4800@ the average person knows that cops use these crooked tactics to fill their monthly quotas. And they will lie about it in court...right to your face!!!
Mr. Steve I just saw a license plate three days ago. It looked like it had been sand blasted. The letters and numbers were perfect. Painted in the correct color. I live in Pennsylvania. Oh yeah the car was painted silver. Why give the police a reason to pull you over? The world wonders.
Why do you think there are auditors out on the streets calling out cops who try to violate their rights. Happens every day. Some people win huge lawsuits over it.
Good move. I tell the dealer I don’t want any of their advertising on my car, be it plate frame, window sticker or decals or emblems on the paint; or I won’t accept delivery.
I said the same thing when getting my last car. So they slapped on one of those decals that you need a hot-air gun to remove and hope paint doesn't come off with it.
When I was growing up in Texas, the dealer would put a placard on the trunk or rear fascia that was guaranteed to mar the paint if you tried to remove it 😂
I remember when the Texas dealers that sold new pickups would install their own step bumpers with the dealership name and location engraved across the entire length. Last time I was visiting Texas I thought there were far fewer gun racks than from my days in San Angelo. The ones I did see were more on the order of fishing rod racks.@@brentboswell1294
If I were a lawyer, and I were defending a client charged with having an obscured license plate for having a frame, I would appear in court and complain that anything printed on police station letterhead be omitted from evidence because it is obscured. I would complain that the officers badge number was obscured. If the officer had a moustache, I would complain that the officers mouth is obscured which caused difficulty understanding him. One thing that police all have in common is that they LOVE the semiotics of policing. The formatting, the formality, the quasi-military and military gear. All of it is heavy on appearance-oriented flourishes. I would target each and every single one of those flourishes and challenge their appearance in court based on claims they "obscure" the actual informational content necessary for the case to proceed.
What if your client was a dead beat and refused to pay you any fees? Would you still grill the Police like you say? I mean, each case is different. You can't just look at it from one side.
I got pulled over once for doing the speed limit. The cop told me that's why he stopped me because he thought me doing the speed limit was suspicious. The posted speed was 25 mph, but it's normal for cars to go 40 on that stretch of road, and I guess it was perfectly okay with the cops that cars did 40 mph.
Well, he's not entirely wrong, often times drunk drivers will be ridiculously over board in terms of complying with such things so they don't get stopped. Also, 25mph is just plain dumb for most roads, if they want people to drive that, then they should do like they do around here and put engineered speed bumps that are safe and comfortable at the speed limit but sketchy when you're speeding.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade you’re entirely wrong if what he’s saying is the case, you can’t be pulled over for solely going the speed limit. If there was other behavior that indicated drunk driving, that’s a different thing, but going the speed limit on its own is not even close to enough evidence to support such a belief. “You’re following the law” is not a valid reason to start a traffic stop.
@@niyablake Obeying the law is an excellent defense. A cop saying "I saw you obeying the law so I thought that was suspicious." is severely undermining his own case because he just admitted that he failed the "reasonable" part of reasonable articulable suspicion.
I live in Florida. We have a similar law in that frame cannot obstruct any portion of the lettering, such as the state name or other text and ID numbers. A year or two ago someone apparently told a local car dealer that their dealer advertising frame violated this law and they sent a letter to their customers requesting that they remove the offending frame. They’ve since begun installing a frame that meets the standard of the law and still advertises the dealer. This dealer is also one of the oldest and most respected dealers in the area. Thanks for all the hard work into your videos and keeping it interesting!
Here in Florida they had passed a law where you could get a ticket from the cameras at the traffic lights. The company that installed the cameras promised the city more revenue... It backfire. People were stopping on yellow and the city was making less money. That law had a beautiful sunset.
"People were stopping on yellow" I always stop on a yellow if it can be done safely. The opposing direction traffic sometimes jumps the gun and starts before they have a green.
When I lived in Minnesota, I saw a handicap license plate with a frame around it that said "Dismemberment Has It's Privileges". I called a radio call in show and everyone on air was laughing. It was an example of a truly positive attitude.
My state made a big deal early last year that any cars going through a state inspection would fail if they had a license plate frame. I went for my inspection last fall. I had no issue with the inspection and my alumni plate frame is still on.
In 2010 I got pulled over in Oklahoma for "license plate frame" although my license, registration and financial responsibility all listed me as Ohio resident. I was informed that he (the cop) could issue a ticket, although he wouldn't. It seemed obvious that the license plate frame was used to stop me, so he had probable cause as he spent more time with his head close to my window (my guess was checking for odor of sweet oregano aka the devils lettce) as well looking in my back seat area.
I had a cop pull me over once for my license plate light being out. While stopped I took my seat belt off and got my ID and registration papers ready. When the cop got to the side of my car he said he pulled me over the license plate light and then said a seat belt infraction when he noticed my belt off. I said it was on, that I had took it off after stopping when he pulled me over. So I could get my info ready like were taught to do in my state. When I asked if I could see what light was out he said no stay in the car. The cop then wrote me a ticket for the seat belt and the light. When I stopped at my destination I went to the back of my car and saw the light was fine... from then on I refuse to accept a ticket for faulty lights on my car until I can see them and I leave my seat belt on and quit trying to get info ready for the officers.. I also started fighting ALL my tickets and I swear this I quit getting pulled over.
Similarly, AFTER the cop walked up to the right side of my car, I unbuckled my seat belt so I could reach to roll down the hand crank window to talk to him. A few minutes later he wanted to write me a seat belt ticket.
@@davidh9638 how on earth can you not roll down the window with the seatbelt on? Oh you have the shit American manufacturer ratcheting seatbelt mechanisms that don’t let you move at all. Never mind.
@@nonionbeezness Let me guess, you're not aware that cars used to have manual windows, right? You know, a handle attached to the door that you had to "crank" in order to lower or raise the window. It's probably going to surprise you to find out cars also didn't automatically come with air conditioning. If it was even available you had to order it as an option. Shocking, huh?
@@John-tx1wk nope not at all. You guess wrong. I had several manual window cars. My 94 model with manual crank windows left my ownership in 2008. That the seatbelt doesn’t allow you to move forward is the problem. In all the crank window cars I ever owned or rode in or drive , I could lean forward with the belt attached just fine. The belt reel let out the belt as needed so long as it wasn’t a very fast jerking motion. But I’ll say those 8 or so cars were all European manufacturers. A few Fords I rode in, had the opposite effect - the poorly designed seatbelts there would just ratchet no matter how slowly one moved so one did have to unbuckle to move forward , say to reach the glovebox or down to release the hood latch release. So I can imagine those piss poor seatbelts may well also restrict cranking the window. This is why I made the comment about the belts. Because it’s not the crank windows that is the problem there- it’s the shit seatbelt I’m guessing is the problem.
@@nonionbeezness ... he did say the RIGHT side and here in the USA the driver sits on the left side. You'd need to remove a belt to reach that far over in many cars.
Old man was driving 45 in a 55 zone. officer pulls him over for possible intoxication, the old man explained, "I am going home, this is the only time I get to spend by myself". The officer laughed and told him to go slow, but watch his rear view mirror, because not everyone is going home.
So now the cops will have to go back to the classic: "Your taillight is out, and I'm giving you a littering ticket for all the broken bits of taillight I just knocked off your vehicle"
@@sittingindetroit9204 Around where I am in Washington, tapping or flicking your cigarette out of your window is considered a potential fire hazard. Why? During the summer, there are frequent fires in the medians and side-grass areas along the interstates caused by discarded cigarettes.
I wonder how many lawmakers, judges, cops, and other gov't workers were cited in that five year period. If NJ cops can't figure out the 'relevant' information on a NJ plate, despite seeing them hourly and having passed police academy, they need to be in a different line of work. Also, just find another state whose law on plate obscuring makes real sense and copy it because you're obviously not qualified.
I got pulled over in Arizona for having an alumni license plate frame from CSM, the cop told me it covered the word Colorado on my plate. But the frame had the word Colorado on it right where it covered Co on my plate. Dumbest traffic stop ever.
If that's all the cop pulled you over for, s/he was in violation of the law. Plate frames cannot cover the state name in AZ, but you cannot be pulled over specifically for that violation; you must have committed another violation, in addition to, the plate frame violation in order to be stopped. That said, the law is for Arizona plates, not other states.
I kind of like the plate to be in full view. In Iowa the plates used to have the county number and the public wanted to see the area the car was from. On the bottom of our plate it shows the county name and it is a Joy to see when traveling if someone is from the same area. Remember a lot of people like to have special plates expressing sports, wild life, and so on. My opinion
Got pulled over in 1985 in my brand-new Renault car, completely stock standard, and said that I had illegal lights, because the fog lamps were yellow and the main beams are white, The car was a week old and straight from the factory, and a very popular car at the time…apparently the law was you’re allowed to have either all yellow or all white, but not a combination.
It's not that they want to write you a ticket for "something". It's pretext for a fishing expedition to lock you up. If they can't "plain view" a more serious infraction in the first minutes of the stop you get the BS ticket. It's a, low effort, win-win for the state. ...your naivete sometimes.
It’s both. It CAN be a pretext, but it’s also definitely because they want to write you a ticket that they can charge you for. Remember, these are police that try to justify ticket quotas. They want the money from tickets. They also want to be able to try and find other things they can accuse you of.
I've been pulled over for signaling too early, and I've been pulled over for signalling too late. In every case, _every_ case, they just wanted to see if I had been drinking. I was riding a motorcycle once and got pulled over because they thought I had just robbed a bank and wanted to check me out!
Signaling too early (as in way to early sich as several turn opportunities before the one you take) and to late (how most motorists change lanes) are both a violation. The officer was probably bored and you looked suspicious.
What also needs to be gotten rid of are license plates that indicate what part of the state you are from. After getting out of the Navy I finished my last couple of years of college in central Illinois however I'm from Chicago so that's where my car was registered. About a month after being there I was driving home from work at about 2 in the morning & got pulled over. When the officer pulled me over he asked if I knew why I was being pulled over & I said I really don't. He then said it was for doing 38 in a 35. He didn't give me a ticket but my first thought was this was a clear case of DWB because this is a town that not counting students was less than 2% black at the time. However I later found out that the police in the area don't target because of race but they do target students especially if you were from the Chicago area & the way they know that is because of the numbers/letters on the plates. I even began to notice that police would hide in one spot (which they are not supposed to be able to do) on a Sunday evening right off of 55 by the main student parking lot where the speed limit drops from 55 to 25 in less than a mile to try & catch students coming back to school.
That's all a problem caused by allowing fines and confiscations to be used for budgetary purposes. If all fines paid were required by law to be donated to unrelated government entities that cannot be expected to return tit-for-tat then the impetus behind these "write tickets to fill in the budget" schemes would be eliminated and thus our government would be less likely to abuse their power in this way.
That reminded me of my old ford ranger. I had some kind of electrical problem which wouldn't light up the license plate lights (not the bulbs). I didn't feel like fixing it so in order to pass inspection I would tape two flash lights inside the bumper in the bulb housing. they would see light and pass it. I would then pull them out till next year, because they wouldn't stay there. I did that for several years, always passed never got pulled over for it.
Around here they require you to get new license plates from time to time just based on age of the plate. From what I understand, the retroreflective coating can go bad making it harder to be seen at night. The fact that they can make you pay for it and it's a convenient chance to remove older license plate numbers when they change the format is probably not a bug.
RE:Chris L. They did that in Michigan, too. It's all a money-making scheme. They used to give you a new plate (free) every year. Then they switched to only giving you a sticker. Now, if your plate is x years old, you have to BUY a new plate in addition to paying your registration fee. Also, I am pretty sure, if you are late even 1 day in renewing your plate or driver's license, you have to, also, pay a "late fee". Even if you were, say, in a hospital or jail and not driving for a period of time and did not need a license.
FL has over 100 different plate designs. Many other states have numerous designs as well. That is why it is important to clearly see the State as well.
I had a completely clear license plate cover on my car one time, I was flagged over for a random vehicle inspection, something that is occasionally done in Ohio for passenger vehicles. Usually takes about 5 minutes and they check windshield wipers headlights brake lights turn signals, etc. Anyway the highway patrol officer gets done comes up me and says I need to replace my wipers because they skipped a little, him not knowing that they literally were a week old, and said I can't have my license plate cover over the plates, because of them potentially obstructing The the ironic part of the whole thing is the license plate cover was bought at the BMV when I got my new plates for that car.
Hey Dan Draiss@ I once got stopped for having a headlight out, but I just had both headlights replaced that day and the old ones were still on my back seat with the recipe. I showed the cop and he just stared at me, got mad and just walked away.
Years ago I too had a clear license plate cover to protect my vanity plate. Actually 2 of them, since NY requires 2 plates. I had parked my minivan and went to Los Angeles for a few days. I don't recall how long after I got home, I went to get the car, but it wasn't there. TL;DR It had been towed and amongst the infractions was the 'illegal cover' one. It turns out the State had put that law on the books a few years earlier. When I was fighting the towing and other infractions, I told the judge I didn't know about that one. He was nice enough to dismiss it. Even now, I have no frame. When I got my current vehicle, I told the dealership to remove their advertising plate frame. 1. possible infraction of said frame law. 2. They aren't paying me, so therefore I am not going to be a moving advertising platform for them.
@@madashell7224 I don't have a problem with it being a law (or not, not sure if it's an actual law in Ohio). I have a problem with the BMV selling the covers IF it is not allowed to be on the vehicle!
Steve 👍 I'm a New Jersey-in, we had those inspection stickers on the license plate a few years back, but they were discontinued. 24 years or younger vehicles have inspection stickers on the windshield or windscreen for our English friends, in the lower left-hand corner. Or they just run the plate through DMV computer.
I got pulled over for looking at a cop. Literally. A female cop was sitting in a parking lot I have her a quick check out next thing I was getting pulled over. It got thrown out in court she said it was because of sticker on my back window.
I recall a case where someone put tape over the motto: Live Free or Die. He was cited and eventually won the case when the judge agreed that there were other reasonable alternatives.
Unless they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the exact violation they initially started a traffic stop on someone, anything they discover after that point should be inadmissible in court. When a law enforcement officer starts a traffic stop they should be required to state the violation on video before they even turn their lights & sirens on. Otherwise it allows them to claim they noticed something that they didn't see until after the stop was started. This would stop all the vehicles stopped because of a hunch the officer had.
Something like this would only come to bite us all in the butt... if officers were required to do this, all they would do is nitpick a violation, such as say you were driving 41 in a 40, nitpick, but technically they aren't wrong by law that you were speeding and they can 100% use that as legal justification to conduct a stop. or any number of other things they can easily observe, i.e. not completely stopping for a full 2 seconds at a stop sign, aftermarket exhaust or other aftermarket part on your vehicle, license plate frame that partially obstructs the registration sticker (even if just the corner/edge by a millimeter), stopping at a red light with your bumper slightly intruding past the line and into the crosswalk, or any other number of easily nitpicked justifications to "prove beyond a reasonable doubt" to initiate a traffic stop. So no thanks, if police were required to do what you said, it would just result in nitpicking and even more ridiculous reasons for a traffic stop like this video.
@@tr0ublerising judges are typically sided with the officers.. if you ever gone to court to fight a ticket, you may fine that the officer and the judge are even on first name basis, or worse yet, judge asks the officer a personal question (ie how’s the family), which tells you that officer is constantly in court or buddies with the judge. Or other instances the judge willing to take the cops word as proof versus you whose required to prove your dispute with evidence as your statements hold zero value.
In Indiana (and I would guess other states) the plates are not stamped and and fairly thin allowing them bend easily. If you don't have a frame and you go through an automatic car wash there is a good chance you will end up with a bent plate. The frame is almost a necessity to keep the plate from being damaged.
How awesome would it be if every person who was issued such a ridiculous ticket plead not guilty and arranged a court appearance... Just for the frame violations in the year with 127,680 tickets, that would be 491 trials per day of the work week, and that would be over 500 after holidays are factored in. Overload their BS kangaroo court system with their own BS!
In most jurisdictions when you plead Not guilty the fine listed on the citation is no longer applicable. Piss off the Judge/Hearing Officer and that 50 Dollar fine may become 500.
Logic: Govt pays cops six figures a year. Govt directs cops to write lots of tickets to raise money as a de-facto tax. Govt gets less per ticket than they pay the cop to write it. Govt demands higher taxes and tickets to hire more cops for "safety", because all they do is write tickets.
There should be a standard for the size of the obscuring areas of license plate frames, and license plates should be designed such that there is no information in those areas.
We have a similar law in AZ regarding frames blocking part or all of the state name. I've not heard of any crazy amounts of tickets being written regarding it. I get the logic in AZ. Given it's status as a snow bird state and being directly north of Mexico we see plates from every state (even Hawaii) and Mexico.
Mr. Lehto, I very much enjoy your videos. I live in NJ and am tickled pink that you publicized this topic. The dealers near us (especially those that lease vehicles) have stated that it's worth it for them to keep selling the vehicles with the dealer frames - and pay their customers' tickets if and when they're issued. It's an advertising stream that they're reluctant to relinquish.
I wouldn't be surprised if the New Jersey Automobile Dealers Association is making campaign contributions to the politicians who are proposing this law change. The only plate frames that I've ever had is when some annoying dealer tried to slip a few on my car - either at purchase or service. I wish New York had a law to make plate frames illegal - preferably written in a way to minimize the incentive for police to write a bunch of tickets on it.
When a cop wants to write a ticket its because their performance evaluations are based on ticket written and arrests made. It's all about how much revenue they are generating....
@@madashell7224 I worked with ex cops. Its all about the money. I never said the word quota either. I said their performance evaluation is based on tickets and arrest. Also if you don't think that money comes back to the police then you are clearly misinformed and don't fully understand it. Its all about the money if it weren't then fines and fees wouldn't be prevalent in every aspect of the justice system
when states had one plate for everyone, it was fairly easy for cops to identify which state a person was from. With states having 30+ plates it is tough to tell where someone is from and many of the rims obstruct the state, I can see both sides of this issue.
If you haven't committed an infraction, it's none of their business where you are from. If you have committed an infraction they can discern those details from your license, registration and proof of insurance.
I had plates from one state, and a dealership frame from another. Cop "warned" me about the frame covering part of the plate, so I walked back, grabbed it, and snapped it off, leaving 2 tiny plastic chunks where the screws were. Problem solved, but now the plate rattled, so had to remove the plate and bend it a little to stop the rattle.
Has someone who lives in New Jersey and has received these tickets I will tell you from first-hand experience they are only given to you to give you a break from a point ticket you get pulled over for another infraction IE speeding you're not a jerk and the cop gives you a break he gives you a ticket that is no points he has done his job and giving you a ticket yet you will not hurt you in the long run
Most of these frame laws have come out in the last 10 years thanks to the toll processing companies. When you don't have a frame, their cameras can take a picture of the license plate and the computer can look up your registration and mail you a bill. If you have a frame and the computer can't read the state name, it has to go to a person to manually enter that information, cutting into their profit.
Would be interesting to know how man hours per year were taken up with writing these 100k tickets. Just think the savings you'd make by employing this reduced number of police officers or having them deal with real crimes
The bigger question is, how much revenue those tickets generated. It probably more than made up for the man-hours needed to write them. That's what happens when you allow policing-for-profit.
Depending on the area they cover, most cops can have a large amount of down time, so they are expected to write tickets as preventative measures and to prove they are working. One small city in our state has a major interstate running through it. The speeding fines issued on that stretch of interstate is a major portion of that county's annual budget and has been for decades. I know it's there and I've still managed to slip up and get caught twice over the years. My bad. I deserved the tickets.
Another favorite NJ equipment violation is a dim/ out license plate light. NJ does not use plate stickers for registration. And once again, Steve covers my observation right at the end:)
The cops need a 'probable cause' to pull a vehicle over. While watching Live PD on TV, which was at night time, the main reason (excuse) that they used was that the Rear License Plate Light was out!
In NY, the inspection and registration stickers are on the lower left of the windshield. The beginning of every month they setup 'check points' usually at an on ramp to one of the interstates just to check the stickers. If it's expired, then they have you pull over where the other two or three officers are sitting writing tickets.
the quality of plates here in MI is crap... you are lucky if the plate lasts long enough before all the paint peels off before you are required by the Secretary of State to get a new one. many people just drive around with a bare metal plate because they dont think they should be responsible to pay for a new one when they barely last a few years...
@@pa28cfi neither have I, but if you have kept your old plates from over the years to back when they just used to be the blue background, you can tell they are just cheap now. I dont remember ever seeing plates with paint peeling off like they do now either. I never have had a plate fall apart, but i see tons of them on the road which should be an indication they arent made like they they used to be and something is wrong.
I have a friend who's Uncle was a State Trooper. He said they pull over everyone they clock going just under the speed limit because most of the time they are doing something illegal and they drive extra carefully to ensure they aren't pulled over.
Courts have found that following the speed limit cannot be reasonable suspicion to pull someone over, because following the law is a legal requirement.
NY still has their license plate law which is just are restrictive, and guess what: it's also illegal to have stickers in your back window ("The use or placing of posters or stickers on windshields or rear windows of motor vehicles other than those authorized by the commissioner, is hereby prohibited."). So any college stickers on the window are illegal. PBA stickers, however, are well known to never have an issue with restricted views.
TH-camr rob got a ticket for an expired NY inspection sticker when he visited a friending NYC . The car was registered in NJ, had NJ plates, rob has a NJ license, lives in NJ has a businesses in NJ. NY said fuck you pay us cause it's illegal to drive around with an expired inspection sticker
I'm always annoyed when I buy a new car and the dealer puts the stupid frame on with his logo/name blocking part of the plate. That means I just dropped 50k on a car and then i have to unscrew the plate, trash the frame. They should make this illegal but then not fine the driver but rather fine the dealers for selling cars with partially covered plates. That would stop that ugly practice quickly.
Every time I buy a car I have to tell them to not to replace the license plate frame. I live in PA where the state name is up top so most dealer plates have the thick edge with their name at the bottom. My wife and I have specialty plates though where it says Pennsylvania on the bottom. That makes their frames illegal. Instead we use basic metal frames that are thin all the way around. I've also learned to make sure the inspection stickers are up to date and watch out for obnoxious dealer logos on the back.
Steve, I don't know if it's the same thing as here in Pennsylvania. We have issues with the paint or laminate peeling off the surface of the metal. What we have to do, in that case, is go to a PA inspection station. They fill a form out, confirming that the plate can not be read from a distance of 50 feet. You mail, that slip to the DMV. The DMV, will then issue a new plate to you to replace the unreadable plate.
The last time I got pulled over the cop came up and asked me if I had just entered the highway at the previous on ramp and I said no (truthfully). He then apologized for stopping me as he was already pretty sure I wasn't the car he was intending to pull over and let me resume traveling with no additional interactions (no checking license and registration or anything else). I have often wondered if he was intending to hit on some gal he was expecting to find in my car.
They may actually have good reason for that. There may be a bolo out for a vehicle but no registration given, just a rough location which would mean last on ramp. Its iffy but there is in exceptional circumstances reason for it.
@@rumplestiltskin7304 it's a cover your ass thing. If they issue it they can claim they looked atleast. And occasionally that 2% that aren't blind (or more often than not the automated systems in cctv control rooms) spot the vehicle.
I've always just regarded these types of tickets as just an extra tax on drivers. A way to increase revenue. It's obvious they are not a safety issue and are just meant to harass and raise revenue. Everyone I knew recognized this and we just paid the fine/tax so we could continue to get to work.
They created a law here for license frames, they covered the French text on the bottom of the plate. Yes, it's a political thing. The next party that got elected, redesigned the plate for the bottom was empty, not sure if the law is still on the books. Some plates are covered with a vinyl or plastic wrap like material. These car peel off and you end up with a embossed but blank looking plate. Low bid, right?
Here in NY, about 10 years ago I think, there was a bunch of plates that were made with some sort of manufacturing defect. They started peeling. The DMV said we had to trade these plates in. Kicker was they wanted to charge for the replacement. I saw so many creative ways of ppl trying to avoid having to trade in and pay due to those defective plates. Clear packing tape, nail polish (painting the missing numbers), heck some coated it in clear epoxy.
I live in an area with considerable thru traffic.Major, tourist trap, two major interstates converge, huge university and massive government DOD/DOE installation. I would love to see the frames made illegal. Due to vanity plates, it's no longer easy to make out the state. Huge problem.
@@cliftonmcnalley8469 Why does it make any difference what state the car/plate is from unless you are a cop looking to up your quota fulfillment? And vanity plates have the exact same size of letters/numbers as a regular plate. How does that make it harder to read the state? Only Karens want to be License Plate Police.
@@dalewalker4614 The licensing state makes a HUGE difference if the driver does something wrong and needs/deserves to be reported or stopped. I witnessed an issue once and though I couldn't memorize and see the tag number fast enough, I saw the plates were from Arizona. That sticks out like a sore thumb in Tennessee. "A two-tone beige conversion van with Arizona plates" is a very specific descriptor. Also living in a mountainous tourist trap area as I do, it's very important for responsible defensive driving to give "flatlanders" a much wider berth than normal in certain driving situations. License plate frames are purely aesthetic and of zero use. If they block the state name they are a problem.
Hey Steve, what about the Police being able to verify the insurance from the Car's License Plate? It happened to me in Independence Oregon. I wasn't even driving. I was parked in a parking lot temporarily while changing my tire.
If the plate frames are or were illegal, you can be damned sure I'd never have one on my automobiles, including insisting nay dealer remove their frame from any newly purchased car.
I aways remove the frame. I took my car in for routine maintenance and the shop took it upon itself to install it’s own marketing frame. I had them remove it.
This is good illustration to the moral deficiency of our justice. No matter how petty, bureaucratic, making no sense the "complaint" is, the accused has no recourse for his time, money, and aggravation. Police officer can write a ticket that makes no sense at all, but the best outcome for the accused is only to be found not guilty. However ridiculous the case was, he is getting no compensation from the state. It would be very fair if the judge could order the state to compensate the citizen, or if every citizen whose case was dropped could go after the state for the damages resulting from the proceedings, and the agency that did it was taking some financial hit. Until this is the case, all so called "law enforcement" is 90% bureaucracy and only 10% actually going after actually bad guys. "OK, readers, get ready for some secret stuff, never seen on TV and unmentioned in the Daily Fish Wrap tossed to your front door. Are you seated? Do you have a grip? Here it is: The criminal justice system does not spend much time arresting and sentencing real bad guys. “What?” you say. “That’s impossible!” No doubt you want to challenge me. Do not I, like you, watch the news and see that every single day some bank robber, carjacker, or child molester has been rounded up? Of course, but I see what you don’t-that for every serious bad guy arrested, hundreds of petty offenders go to jail. What the criminal justice system actually does most of the time is process the third group of players, the clueless horde. Clueless petty offenders are by far the most important players in the system because, without their vast numbers, and the money that is extracted from them and their families, cops and judges would be filing for unemployment and all those brand-new police stations, jails, and administrative offices would have “for rent” signs hammered in their immaculate lawns. Who are these people, the bread and butter-nay, the staff of life-for millions of municipal and state employees? They are people who » possess small quantities of drugs » get an attitude with police » yell at their wives and girlfriends » drive with suspended licenses » do malicious mischief » create disturbances at clubs and parties » ride bikes at night without a light (I’m not kidding!) » get arrested as accessories during police raids » carry medications without the proper labels or prescriptions » “loiter,” i.e., hang out » take pocketknives and nail scissors to school » drink alcohol in public" (from the book "Arrest-Proof Yourself" by Dale Carson)
However it IS totally legit to ticket for those smoked plastic covers over their plates. I've been behind countless cars in Michigan where I'm right behind them and I can't read the plate. I've asked cops about those and they've told me ABSOLUTELY those are illegal. They don't typically pull over for it but having one means the cops have an excuse to pull you over whenever they like.
@@dalewalker4614 I'm not worried about it. Just pointing out that it's very obviously illegal, if even driving directly behind I can't read it. It's illegal to deliberately obscure the plate.
I've been given a license plate frame ticket in NJ, and was happy to take it, because I was speeding and he gave me that zero point ticket instead as a warning.
Legit question What if you come from out of state, where no one cares about license plate frames? For example, if you’re from Kansas (one license plate stste) and come to Illinois, they can’t give you A ticket for one plate, because they are legal in Kansas (registration state)
@@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou The laws of the state in which the car is registered apply, no matter which state you are visiting. I think that's what you meant to say.
@@themidsouthcyclist8880 Yes, this may be how I should have worded it. Once you cross a state line, the officers in that state are only required to know the applicable laws for that one state and will ignore laws from the other 49, as of right now, states. If you have a totally legal for Kansas licence plate frame and as long as the New Jersey law doesn't exempt out-of-state lawfully registered vehicles, the cop will most probably utilise it as an easy way to meet their quota.
Hey Lord Rayden@ well if you're from outta state the cops already take that as an opportunity for a shake down. Families traveling on vacation have horror stories about civil forfeiture...highway armed robbery!!!
I got this type of ticket in NJ twice. In both cases they were “breaks” to avoid a small speeding ticket since there’s no points/non-moving violations and are rarely contested in court. They used to give cell phone violations until those became more substantial. In NJ, to fight a ticket requires 2 court appearances. Both of the “towns” involved were very small and on one strip of the main or only road through it and seem to exist primarily for ticketing purposes. Maybe the law change will create more moving violations. Hard to imagine revenue generation will change. Look for a change in the types of tickets written.
When I by a car I make it a point to tell the dealership to remove all dealership advertising from the car. Sometimes they leave a small sticker on the tailgate or trunk and I let that go but I didn't buy my car to be their billboard. That stuff really cheezes me off. It did result in me getting free mudflaps for a car once cause all they had was dealerbranded mudflaps. 😅 I will be their billboard if I get 200 bucks in mudflaps for free.😅
Those poor policemen! If the law passes, they'll have to find some other ridiculous reason to pull people over. They'll still pull people over for it. They just won't be able to issue a tickets.
Personally, if a dealership put their frame on any vehicles I own, I'd ask for at least $300 a year for advertising. If they don't agree, their frame would be removed.
That's always part of the deal when I buy a car. No license plate frames, no dealer stickers, etc. Started doing that as rust avoidance back in the days when they'd actually drill holes in the car to mount their silly little dealer plates.
The last new car I bought I called & got the exact price for the car + taxes & license so I could take a cashier's check to pay for the car (NO upsells or add-on arguments). I told the salesman in advance NOT to drill the front bumper for a license plate bracket and NOT to place a dealership decal anywhere on the car. When we arrived to pick up the car just before quitting time they had placed a dealership decal on the back of the car and were preparing to drill the front bumper for the license plate bracket. I sat down with their "finance manager" (closer) & told him to have someone remove the decal, and that if they drilled the bumper, they just bought the car back! He said he could have someone remove the decal but claimed the law required them to install the license bracket. I called him on his BS and asked him to show me the code that required the dealership to do so.... (My state does require a front plate, but they can't pull you over for lack of one.) Of course there is no law requiring the dealership to install the license plate holder, so he relented and went into his spiel to sell me undercoating, paint protection and engraved glass. I reminded him that I had specifically made a deal with NO addons and the check lying on his desk in front of me was for the exact amount agreed to. When he claimed that "the law REQUIRED him to offer me each option, with an explanation, I had had enough. I quietly stood up, picked up the cashier's check for $25K+ and walked out of his office without saying another word. My wife just sat there watching him watching me with his jaw on the desk. As I walked out of the showroom she looked at him and in her sweet southern drawl told him that if he didn't apologize to me before I reached her car, that there was no way I would buy the car from him..... The old fart was out of breath as he caught me just as I was about to her car. Apparently his bluffs had never caused anyone to walk out on him before and his apology seemed at least a little bit sincere. Five minutes later I had the keys and receipt for the car in hand. He seemed relieved as he walked us to the showroom door, and THEN I let him know that during negotiations his salesman had made me a "counter-offer" that was $800 LESS than I had offered to pay for the car! With a big grin on my face I shook his hand and then disappeared into the night with my new car. *** The REASON I didn't want to display a front plate, besides how badly it distracts from the looks of my car, is that a license plate is a PERFECT reflector of a radar or lidar beam, giving the officer an accurate speed reading every time. My new PT Cruiser GT has multiple compound curves on the front of the car that disperse & scatter the beams, making it all but impossible for an officer to get a reading of my speed long enough to lock in. After 20 years and going through many speed traps at "slightly over the limit" I have never been stopped for speeding. But I have had a few highway patrol officers shake their fist at me (or occasionally wave) as I passed by them, parked in the median of the freeway trying to catch me with their radar.... 😎
heres a crazy idea standard plate size, standard letter/ number size, state identifier left hand side of plate, there you go problem solved, oh and also cut down and drive by crimes numberplates front and rear, reflective yellow to the rear and white to the front, simple idea has been done all across europe & Uk and Northern ireland for years, oh and for the record articulated vehicle trailers in the EU have a seperate red plate on them(the registration plate for the trailer) as well as displaying on the rear of the trailer the registration plate of the articulated unit towing said trailer, also in Europe, it is a requirement to have normally a 2 letter country designator and/or the EU flag, it is a option now here in the UK to have a Union Jack Flag and the letters UK underneath either as a add on stickers (2 of) or you can have plates made, in fact the stickers are available on the UK Amazon site, with the amount of gangs committing crime from cars or leaving scenes of crime /hit run and general vehicle based crime in the US 2 plates that are easily identifable doubles your chance of identifying the registered keeper of such vehicle, and reduce spurious fines for number plate "covers" whats not to lose, oh and as a bonus it creates more plates to be made,but i forgot you dont have nationwide annual safety checks MOTs UK or TUV tests Germany :(
"Problem solved", lol. Governments WANT problems, they puposefully create them, they make laws to insure that revenue stream. Solving problems is not what our many governments do. They create problems in order to generate revenue. Geez, guys, WAKE UP.
My home state uses 2 stickers. One for the month, the other one is the last 2 digits of the year. When you renew your Tabs as we call it, you get a new year sticker that is color coded different then the previous year. Ours go in the lower left for the month and lower right is of course they year. We used to get new plate about every 7 years. Most people just put the new year tab over the old one. In my state if a person makes a mistake and puts the wrong sticker on the wrong car if they have 2 or more cars due in the same month, I have heard you can call or stop in the local Deputy Register (or DMV) advise them of your mistake and they can get the correction made or requested in the computer. Our year stickers have a bar code or actual #'s on the tab to id it in case of theft or other issues. My home state is west of yours Steve. I am in the upper midwest.
I see many, many cars with darkened plastic obscuring their license plates apparently for the purpose of defeating traffic light cameras. I don't think that should be legal.
The traffic light cameras emit a strong flash of light when they take picture, regardless of time of day, so the smoked cover doesn't defeat the traffic light camera. On the other hand, 2 or 3 coats of glossy clear paint applied to a new plate can often cause the bright reflection of the flash to obscure the numbers on the plate..... Don't ask me how I know that. lol
I had this problem in OKLAHOMA one time we had that frame on that frame on my car fore years in my home state of ALABAMA The officer didn’t give me a ticket but he did lecture us over it
Was pulled over in Metro Detroit in 1971 for doing 26 mph in a 25 mph zone. It's rather amazing that the cop radar equipment was so accurate and precise then... 🤣
In Arid-zona there is still a law making it illegal to display SOME license plate frames and ALL license plate covers. The states rationale regarding license plate frames, if I'm not mistaken, was that they don't want the registration tags obscured. As such, only those license plate frames that do not obscure the state name, the state motto, and the registration tags can be displayed on vehicles in the state of Arizona. With respect to license plate covers, that law was passed back in the day when people used reflective license plate covers to make it more difficult to read the license plate.
The plate frame law was put on the books specifically for the state name due to LEOs complaining about the volume of different plate designs we have. You can put any frame you desire on your plate, so long as it does not block the state name. Furthermore, LEOs cannot pull you over just for that violation, hence the reason AZ has a lot of plate frame violations even today, long after that law was passed.
It would be nice if the Law Makers wrote in the Legislation, if a Police Officer pulls a person over for this Violation and is thrown out of Court, the Fee then transfer to the Law Enforcement Officer to pay PERSONALLY
The reflective paint has a predictable lifespan. A company put of Erie PA I drove for had to replace all the old plates in the fleet. We couldn't go through a scale without getting stopped on the platform while empty. Pulled around back and asked the third straight week in Florida.
As a NJ resident, I'm so happy to see this. I don't have a frame, I just hate ridiculous pretexts for pulling people over and extracting money, or bootstrapping into something else.
In Pennsylvania they did away with the registration stickers. When a officer scan’s the plate it tells them if it’s registered and insured. Usually if it’s scanned and your not speeding they just scan your plate and don’t bother you.
I got one of those license plate tickets in NJ back in 2015. I had forgotten that the cops in that town make it a point of hanging out on Rt 73 during morning rush hour and pulling people over non-stop for bs tickets. I guess that's how they make most of their money, and I make it a point to avoid that town since then.
When I was 16 and wanting to get my license my dad told me if I see an officer behind me, no matter how far behind me to make the next right turn or pull into a parking lot. Let the officer get in front of me because cops only have one goal and that's to give ME a ticket. I'm 71 now and still following Daddy's advice.
Cops love to harass teenage drivers. I think it's to put the 'fear of the law' into them.
Most cops are way to busy to write a cite. Traffic stops are used to investigate a situation which is a statistical anomaly. White and driving around South Central at 2am. You are getting stopped.
I do this all the time as well.
@@JohnGalt-vr3lx most cops are too busy????? To do what, their F'n job?????
Do you think before you write or say anything 🤔 they show they're too busy to actually learn the laws they try to enforce or does them being too busy negate that for them???
@@MrSlicky77 too busy? These guys literally have 7 hours of a work day to drive around and just do whatever they want. Maybe 1 hour of their day is spent actually working.
I was pulled over by a motorcycle officer once, his reason was that I looked at him. I had a dash cam and brought it to court after he issued 2 other equipment violations and failure to wear corrective lenses. The judge watched the video and when he heard the officer say why he pulled me over dismissed all the violations.
Yet the cops still get paid and we have waste a day in court. Even when we win, we lose
Sucks, because you had to prove him wrong at your expense. Ridiculous, they ticket people mostly because they know most cant afford to take away off work to fight it. It's happened to me. Assholes.
These things often don't matter to the cop who will write tickets he KNOWS will be dismissed because;
1: He gets to count the stop/ contact towards his 'Quota'/ Performance requirement and;
2: he gets paid, (overtime usually), to go and sit in court while YOU, dear reader, have to take time off from work to go to court and try to fight it.
@@johnme7049 well I’d bet the district attorney and municipality that was forced to waste their docket time and resources to process such pointless cases would beg to differ. The taxpayers and the courts and their officers also loose in this.
@Paul Smith They always investigate the complaint and find no harm, no foul. Now what?
I once got pulled over and the cop started asking me all these bizarre questions about chasing the car in front of me and speeding around corners, and after a while of me being completely confused he finally said, "Well I pulled you over because of the air freshener hanging from your mirror". Things like this are ridiculous. There should be no laws on the books that exist only to give cops reasons to harass you. Anyone who thinks its ok needs to have their head examined.
Hey dash4800@ the average person knows that cops use these crooked tactics to fill their monthly quotas.
And they will lie about it in court...right to your face!!!
Mr. Steve I just saw a license plate three days ago. It looked like it had been sand blasted. The letters and numbers were perfect. Painted in the correct color. I live in Pennsylvania. Oh yeah the car was painted silver. Why give the police a reason to pull you over? The world wonders.
What did they do back in the 70s/80s when people had fuzzy dice and all kinds of shit hanging from their rear view mirrors?
Why do you think there are auditors out on the streets calling out cops who try to violate their rights. Happens every day. Some people win huge lawsuits over it.
@@Maki-00 The laws have changed, since.
When a dealer would try to slap dealer frames on our family car, my Mom used to tell them to remove it, if they won't pay us to advertise on our car.
Good move. I tell the dealer I don’t want any of their advertising on my car, be it plate frame, window sticker or decals or emblems on the paint; or I won’t accept delivery.
I said the same thing when getting my last car. So they slapped on one of those decals that you need a hot-air gun to remove and hope paint doesn't come off with it.
@@joeschmo622 You should have taken it to a detail shop to have it done and billed the dealer ship.
When I was growing up in Texas, the dealer would put a placard on the trunk or rear fascia that was guaranteed to mar the paint if you tried to remove it 😂
I remember when the Texas dealers that sold new pickups would install their own step bumpers with the dealership name and location engraved across the entire length. Last time I was visiting Texas I thought there were far fewer gun racks than from my days in San Angelo. The ones I did see were more on the order of fishing rod racks.@@brentboswell1294
If I were a lawyer, and I were defending a client charged with having an obscured license plate for having a frame, I would appear in court and complain that anything printed on police station letterhead be omitted from evidence because it is obscured. I would complain that the officers badge number was obscured. If the officer had a moustache, I would complain that the officers mouth is obscured which caused difficulty understanding him. One thing that police all have in common is that they LOVE the semiotics of policing. The formatting, the formality, the quasi-military and military gear. All of it is heavy on appearance-oriented flourishes. I would target each and every single one of those flourishes and challenge their appearance in court based on claims they "obscure" the actual informational content necessary for the case to proceed.
What if your client was a dead beat and refused to pay you any fees? Would you still grill the Police like you say? I mean, each case is different. You can't just look at it from one side.
Makes me wonder what they will write tickets for to make up for that. 100,000 is a whole lot of doughnuts!
RE:AmericanPatriot. The money goes to the court; not the police.
@munsters2 ....Yeah, but they all eat doughnuts don't they?
@@Vod-Kaknockers Oh, okay, yeah, maybe.
@munsters2 ...🙂
One of my best friends is a retired LEO and I give him a good ribbing over stuff like this.
@@Vod-Kaknockers Ha, ha!
I got pulled over once for doing the speed limit. The cop told me that's why he stopped me because he thought me doing the speed limit was suspicious. The posted speed was 25 mph, but it's normal for cars to go 40 on that stretch of road, and I guess it was perfectly okay with the cops that cars did 40 mph.
I got pulled over for pacing a cop with my adaptive cruise control!!!
Well, he's not entirely wrong, often times drunk drivers will be ridiculously over board in terms of complying with such things so they don't get stopped. Also, 25mph is just plain dumb for most roads, if they want people to drive that, then they should do like they do around here and put engineered speed bumps that are safe and comfortable at the speed limit but sketchy when you're speeding.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade you’re entirely wrong if what he’s saying is the case, you can’t be pulled over for solely going the speed limit. If there was other behavior that indicated drunk driving, that’s a different thing, but going the speed limit on its own is not even close to enough evidence to support such a belief. “You’re following the law” is not a valid reason to start a traffic stop.
@@bradenculver7457 Obeying the law is no defense. Yeah sounds stupid . If obeying te law is cause to be pulled over .
@@niyablake Obeying the law is an excellent defense. A cop saying "I saw you obeying the law so I thought that was suspicious." is severely undermining his own case because he just admitted that he failed the "reasonable" part of reasonable articulable suspicion.
I live in Florida. We have a similar law in that frame cannot obstruct any portion of the lettering, such as the state name or other text and ID numbers. A year or two ago someone apparently told a local car dealer that their dealer advertising frame violated this law and they sent a letter to their customers requesting that they remove the offending frame. They’ve since begun installing a frame that meets the standard of the law and still advertises the dealer. This dealer is also one of the oldest and most respected dealers in the area.
Thanks for all the hard work into your videos and keeping it interesting!
Florida has the county name on the plate so I can understand that. The officer wants to know if you are local or not.
I wouldn't let a dealer put their advertising crap on my vehicle unless they were paying me.
Here in Florida they had passed a law where you could get a ticket from the cameras at the traffic lights. The company that installed the cameras promised the city more revenue... It backfire. People were stopping on yellow and the city was making less money. That law had a beautiful sunset.
"People were stopping on yellow"
I always stop on a yellow if it can be done safely. The opposing direction traffic sometimes jumps the gun and starts before they have a green.
@@thomasmaughan4798 Not here in Florida: They wait for the "green" to be the right tonality now.
@@Angelum_Band COL (chuckle out loud)
When I lived in Minnesota, I saw a handicap license plate with a frame around it that said "Dismemberment Has It's Privileges". I called a radio call in show and everyone on air was laughing. It was an example of a truly positive attitude.
My state made a big deal early last year that any cars going through a state inspection would fail if they had a license plate frame. I went for my inspection last fall. I had no issue with the inspection and my alumni plate frame is still on.
In 2010 I got pulled over in Oklahoma for "license plate frame" although my license, registration and financial responsibility all listed me as Ohio resident. I was informed that he (the cop) could issue a ticket, although he wouldn't. It seemed obvious that the license plate frame was used to stop me, so he had probable cause as he spent more time with his head close to my window (my guess was checking for odor of sweet oregano aka the devils lettce) as well looking in my back seat area.
I had a cop pull me over once for my license plate light being out. While stopped I took my seat belt off and got my ID and registration papers ready. When the cop got to the side of my car he said he pulled me over the license plate light and then said a seat belt infraction when he noticed my belt off. I said it was on, that I had took it off after stopping when he pulled me over. So I could get my info ready like were taught to do in my state. When I asked if I could see what light was out he said no stay in the car. The cop then wrote me a ticket for the seat belt and the light. When I stopped at my destination I went to the back of my car and saw the light was fine... from then on I refuse to accept a ticket for faulty lights on my car until I can see them and I leave my seat belt on and quit trying to get info ready for the officers.. I also started fighting ALL my tickets and I swear this I quit getting pulled over.
Similarly, AFTER the cop walked up to the right side of my car, I unbuckled my seat belt so I could reach to roll down the hand crank window to talk to him. A few minutes later he wanted to write me a seat belt ticket.
@@davidh9638 how on earth can you not roll down the window with the seatbelt on? Oh you have the shit American manufacturer ratcheting seatbelt mechanisms that don’t let you move at all. Never mind.
@@nonionbeezness Let me guess, you're not aware that cars used to have manual windows, right? You know, a handle attached to the door that you had to "crank" in order to lower or raise the window. It's probably going to surprise you to find out cars also didn't automatically come with air conditioning. If it was even available you had to order it as an option. Shocking, huh?
@@John-tx1wk nope not at all. You guess wrong.
I had several manual window cars. My 94 model with manual crank windows left my ownership in 2008.
That the seatbelt doesn’t allow you to move forward is the problem. In all the crank window cars I ever owned or rode in or drive , I could lean forward with the belt attached just fine. The belt reel let out the belt as needed so long as it wasn’t a very fast jerking motion. But I’ll say those 8 or so cars were all European manufacturers. A few Fords I rode in, had the opposite effect - the poorly designed seatbelts there would just ratchet no matter how slowly one moved so one did have to unbuckle to move forward , say to reach the glovebox or down to release the hood latch release. So I can imagine those piss poor seatbelts may well also restrict cranking the window.
This is why I made the comment about the belts. Because it’s not the crank windows that is the problem there- it’s the shit seatbelt I’m guessing is the problem.
@@nonionbeezness ... he did say the RIGHT side and here in the USA the driver sits on the left side. You'd need to remove a belt to reach that far over in many cars.
Old man was driving 45 in a 55 zone. officer pulls him over for possible intoxication, the old man explained, "I am going home, this is the only time I get to spend by myself". The officer laughed and told him to go slow, but watch his rear view mirror, because not everyone is going home.
lol
Thanks for wearing our shirt Steve. Watching with my two rescue Dobermans. Way cool!
So now the cops will have to go back to the classic: "Your taillight is out, and I'm giving you a littering ticket for all the broken bits of taillight I just knocked off your vehicle"
Saw a cop just last week threaten to arrest someone for their cigarette ash. Said it was littering...
And because of crap like that Minnesota banded pulling people over just for that
@@sittingindetroit9204 Around where I am in Washington, tapping or flicking your cigarette out of your window is considered a potential fire hazard. Why? During the summer, there are frequent fires in the medians and side-grass areas along the interstates caused by discarded cigarettes.
@@Flameheadwilson yeah, that's gonna get more common with climate change.
@@Flameheadwilson So by that logic peeing out the window should be golden. 😀
I wonder how many lawmakers, judges, cops, and other gov't workers were cited in that five year period. If NJ cops can't figure out the 'relevant' information on a NJ plate, despite seeing them hourly and having passed police academy, they need to be in a different line of work. Also, just find another state whose law on plate obscuring makes real sense and copy it because you're obviously not qualified.
welcome to new jersey
Someone should do a FOI to see if either of those two lawmakers recently got a ticket for that ;)
Does that really matter? The better question would be how often they got pulled over for it and let off with a warning.
I got pulled over in Arizona for having an alumni license plate frame from CSM, the cop told me it covered the word Colorado on my plate. But the frame had the word Colorado on it right where it covered Co on my plate. Dumbest traffic stop ever.
I avoid AZ as much as I can.
Well, no.
If that's all the cop pulled you over for, s/he was in violation of the law. Plate frames cannot cover the state name in AZ, but you cannot be pulled over specifically for that violation; you must have committed another violation, in addition to, the plate frame violation in order to be stopped.
That said, the law is for Arizona plates, not other states.
If it has Colorado in the same location as the official plate then what's the reason to have the frame?
@@amandak.4246 yes Colorado School of Mines. , I should have been more specific.
I kind of like the plate to be in full view. In Iowa the plates used to have the county number and the public wanted to see the area the car was from. On the bottom of our plate it shows the county name and it is a Joy to see when traveling if someone is from the same area.
Remember a lot of people like to have special plates expressing sports, wild life, and so on. My opinion
Got pulled over in 1985 in my brand-new Renault car, completely stock standard, and said that I had illegal lights, because the fog lamps were yellow and the main beams are white, The car was a week old and straight from the factory, and a very popular car at the time…apparently the law was you’re allowed to have either all yellow or all white, but not a combination.
It's not that they want to write you a ticket for "something". It's pretext for a fishing expedition to lock you up. If they can't "plain view" a more serious infraction in the first minutes of the stop you get the BS ticket. It's a, low effort, win-win for the state. ...your naivete sometimes.
It’s both. It CAN be a pretext, but it’s also definitely because they want to write you a ticket that they can charge you for. Remember, these are police that try to justify ticket quotas. They want the money from tickets. They also want to be able to try and find other things they can accuse you of.
I've been pulled over for signaling too early, and I've been pulled over for signalling too late. In every case, _every_ case, they just wanted to see if I had been drinking. I was riding a motorcycle once and got pulled over because they thought I had just robbed a bank and wanted to check me out!
The stop is always at the officer’s discretion
Signaling too early (as in way to early sich as several turn opportunities before the one you take) and to late (how most motorists change lanes) are both a violation. The officer was probably bored and you looked suspicious.
I was pulled over for driving a motorcycle on a back road. They thought I might be uninsured.
What also needs to be gotten rid of are license plates that indicate what part of the state you are from. After getting out of the Navy I finished my last couple of years of college in central Illinois however I'm from Chicago so that's where my car was registered. About a month after being there I was driving home from work at about 2 in the morning & got pulled over. When the officer pulled me over he asked if I knew why I was being pulled over & I said I really don't. He then said it was for doing 38 in a 35. He didn't give me a ticket but my first thought was this was a clear case of DWB because this is a town that not counting students was less than 2% black at the time. However I later found out that the police in the area don't target because of race but they do target students especially if you were from the Chicago area & the way they know that is because of the numbers/letters on the plates. I even began to notice that police would hide in one spot (which they are not supposed to be able to do) on a Sunday evening right off of 55 by the main student parking lot where the speed limit drops from 55 to 25 in less than a mile to try & catch students coming back to school.
That's all a problem caused by allowing fines and confiscations to be used for budgetary purposes. If all fines paid were required by law to be donated to unrelated government entities that cannot be expected to return tit-for-tat then the impetus behind these "write tickets to fill in the budget" schemes would be eliminated and thus our government would be less likely to abuse their power in this way.
Javelin anti tank missile would take care of that "cop" problem real quick SLAVA UKRAINE
That reminded me of my old ford ranger. I had some kind of electrical problem which wouldn't light up the license plate lights (not the bulbs). I didn't feel like fixing it so in order to pass inspection I would tape two flash lights inside the bumper in the bulb housing. they would see light and pass it. I would then pull them out till next year, because they wouldn't stay there. I did that for several years, always passed never got pulled over for it.
Hundo, unfolded, hanging off the right front side of the top of the main cabinet. 83.
Around here they require you to get new license plates from time to time just based on age of the plate. From what I understand, the retroreflective coating can go bad making it harder to be seen at night. The fact that they can make you pay for it and it's a convenient chance to remove older license plate numbers when they change the format is probably not a bug.
Where is here? Nobody knows where you live.
@@50jakecsmans doesn't want to dox himself
@@50jakecs Sounds like North Carolina
RE:Chris L. They did that in Michigan, too. It's all a money-making scheme. They used to give you a new plate (free) every year. Then they switched to only giving you a sticker. Now, if your plate is x years old, you have to BUY a new plate in addition to paying your registration fee.
Also, I am pretty sure, if you are late even 1 day in renewing your plate or driver's license, you have to, also, pay a "late fee". Even if you were, say, in a hospital or jail and not driving for a period of time and did not need a license.
Like you said, it was just a reason to pull over drivers. All they need to see is the license plate number and expiration date.
FL has over 100 different plate designs. Many other states have numerous designs as well. That is why it is important to clearly see the State as well.
What part of this b.s. is "TO SERVE AND PROTECT". This is just revenue generation. Glad to see a couple lawmakers have the courage to address it.
I had a completely clear license plate cover on my car one time, I was flagged over for a random vehicle inspection, something that is occasionally done in Ohio for passenger vehicles. Usually takes about 5 minutes and they check windshield wipers headlights brake lights turn signals, etc. Anyway the highway patrol officer gets done comes up me and says I need to replace my wipers because they skipped a little, him not knowing that they literally were a week old, and said I can't have my license plate cover over the plates, because of them potentially obstructing The the ironic part of the whole thing is the license plate cover was bought at the BMV when I got my new plates for that car.
Hey Dan Draiss@ I once got stopped for having a headlight out, but I just had both headlights replaced that day and the old ones were still on my back seat with the recipe. I showed the cop and he just stared at me, got mad and just walked away.
Years ago I too had a clear license plate cover to protect my vanity plate. Actually 2 of them, since NY requires 2 plates. I had parked my minivan and went to Los Angeles for a few days. I don't recall how long after I got home, I went to get the car, but it wasn't there. TL;DR It had been towed and amongst the infractions was the 'illegal cover' one. It turns out the State had put that law on the books a few years earlier. When I was fighting the towing and other infractions, I told the judge I didn't know about that one. He was nice enough to dismiss it. Even now, I have no frame.
When I got my current vehicle, I told the dealership to remove their advertising plate frame. 1. possible infraction of said frame law. 2. They aren't paying me, so therefore I am not going to be a moving advertising platform for them.
@@madashell7224 I don't have a problem with it being a law (or not, not sure if it's an actual law in Ohio). I have a problem with the BMV selling the covers IF it is not allowed to be on the vehicle!
I'm a former-NJ resident. My favorite NJ 'slogan' is...."Happiness is a full tank of gas...and New Jersey in my rear view mirror."
Steve 👍 I'm a New Jersey-in, we had those inspection stickers on the license plate a few years back, but they were discontinued. 24 years or younger vehicles have inspection stickers on the windshield or windscreen for our English friends, in the lower left-hand corner. Or they just run the plate through DMV computer.
I got pulled over for looking at a cop. Literally. A female cop was sitting in a parking lot I have her a quick check out next thing I was getting pulled over. It got thrown out in court she said it was because of sticker on my back window.
It was just her way of checking you out in return. You missed that? Google how to pick up chicks or search TH-cam for videos to teach you how. lol
I recall a case where someone put tape over the motto: Live Free or Die.
He was cited and eventually won the case when the judge agreed that there were other reasonable alternatives.
Giving you a ticket for covering the live free or die logo kind of defeat what the logo is saying?
Unless they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the exact violation they initially started a traffic stop on someone, anything they discover after that point should be inadmissible in court. When a law enforcement officer starts a traffic stop they should be required to state the violation on video before they even turn their lights & sirens on. Otherwise it allows them to claim they noticed something that they didn't see until after the stop was started. This would stop all the vehicles stopped because of a hunch the officer had.
I was about to suggest something very similar, but I like your proposal better.
Something like this would only come to bite us all in the butt... if officers were required to do this, all they would do is nitpick a violation, such as say you were driving 41 in a 40, nitpick, but technically they aren't wrong by law that you were speeding and they can 100% use that as legal justification to conduct a stop. or any number of other things they can easily observe, i.e. not completely stopping for a full 2 seconds at a stop sign, aftermarket exhaust or other aftermarket part on your vehicle, license plate frame that partially obstructs the registration sticker (even if just the corner/edge by a millimeter), stopping at a red light with your bumper slightly intruding past the line and into the crosswalk, or any other number of easily nitpicked justifications to "prove beyond a reasonable doubt" to initiate a traffic stop.
So no thanks, if police were required to do what you said, it would just result in nitpicking and even more ridiculous reasons for a traffic stop like this video.
@@LycanWitch actually, let them nitpick. Gives you more to fight in court. The judges will get fed up, the people in charge will get fed up as well.
@@LycanWitch they do that anyways, let them nitpick, it's easy to fight the little things
@@tr0ublerising judges are typically sided with the officers.. if you ever gone to court to fight a ticket, you may fine that the officer and the judge are even on first name basis, or worse yet, judge asks the officer a personal question (ie how’s the family), which tells you that officer is constantly in court or buddies with the judge.
Or other instances the judge willing to take the cops word as proof versus you whose required to prove your dispute with evidence as your statements hold zero value.
In Indiana (and I would guess other states) the plates are not stamped and and fairly thin allowing them bend easily. If you don't have a frame and you go through an automatic car wash there is a good chance you will end up with a bent plate. The frame is almost a necessity to keep the plate from being damaged.
But how many of these plate frame citations led to additional charges???
It's a pretense for a stop in hopes of getting something else on the driver (warrants, expired anything, eyeball search, finding drugs etc..)
How awesome would it be if every person who was issued such a ridiculous ticket plead not guilty and arranged a court appearance... Just for the frame violations in the year with 127,680 tickets, that would be 491 trials per day of the work week, and that would be over 500 after holidays are factored in. Overload their BS kangaroo court system with their own BS!
In most jurisdictions when you plead Not guilty the fine listed on the citation is no longer applicable. Piss off the Judge/Hearing Officer and that 50 Dollar fine may become 500.
Logic: Govt pays cops six figures a year.
Govt directs cops to write lots of tickets to raise money as a de-facto tax.
Govt gets less per ticket than they pay the cop to write it.
Govt demands higher taxes and tickets to hire more cops for "safety", because all they do is write tickets.
I'd would love to know where cops make 6 figures a year?
Good description of the Police State
@@WheresHerb not uncommon at all
Oh damn that's right . Was it New Jersey where cops were getting 120k year pensions ? Or was that New York?
There should be a standard for the size of the obscuring areas of license plate frames, and license plates should be designed such that there is no information in those areas.
But then that would remove any wiggle room for the cops
Being from nj I have never gotten a ticket even for a tinted plate cover so I am surprised that it was that bad
We have a similar law in AZ regarding frames blocking part or all of the state name. I've not heard of any crazy amounts of tickets being written regarding it. I get the logic in AZ. Given it's status as a snow bird state and being directly north of Mexico we see plates from every state (even Hawaii) and Mexico.
iirc the original reason for AZ's license plate frame law was to prevent them from blocking the view for speed/red light cameras
Mr. Lehto, I very much enjoy your videos. I live in NJ and am tickled pink that you publicized this topic. The dealers near us (especially those that lease vehicles) have stated that it's worth it for them to keep selling the vehicles with the dealer frames - and pay their customers' tickets if and when they're issued. It's an advertising stream that they're reluctant to relinquish.
I wouldn't be surprised if the New Jersey Automobile Dealers Association is making campaign contributions to the politicians who are proposing this law change. The only plate frames that I've ever had is when some annoying dealer tried to slip a few on my car - either at purchase or service. I wish New York had a law to make plate frames illegal - preferably written in a way to minimize the incentive for police to write a bunch of tickets on it.
When I buy cars I tell them do dealer advertising, or I'm not buying the car, most of them don't have an issue with it.
When a cop wants to write a ticket its because their performance evaluations are based on ticket written and arrests made. It's all about how much revenue they are generating....
You're right about the quotas but you are wrong about the revenue. The fines are dtermined by the judges and the money goes to the court.
@@madashell7224 I worked with ex cops. Its all about the money. I never said the word quota either. I said their performance evaluation is based on tickets and arrest. Also if you don't think that money comes back to the police then you are clearly misinformed and don't fully understand it. Its all about the money if it weren't then fines and fees wouldn't be prevalent in every aspect of the justice system
when states had one plate for everyone, it was fairly easy for cops to identify which state a person was from. With states having 30+ plates it is tough to tell where someone is from and many of the rims obstruct the state, I can see both sides of this issue.
If you haven't committed an infraction, it's none of their business where you are from. If you have committed an infraction they can discern those details from your license, registration and proof of insurance.
@@Jay.McCarty for officer safety they often call in the plate before leaving their vehicle. In a chase they need to call in the plate while driving.
I had plates from one state, and a dealership frame from another. Cop "warned" me about the frame covering part of the plate, so I walked back, grabbed it, and snapped it off, leaving 2 tiny plastic chunks where the screws were. Problem solved, but now the plate rattled, so had to remove the plate and bend it a little to stop the rattle.
Has someone who lives in New Jersey and has received these tickets I will tell you from first-hand experience they are only given to you to give you a break from a point ticket you get pulled over for another infraction IE speeding you're not a jerk and the cop gives you a break he gives you a ticket that is no points he has done his job and giving you a ticket yet you will not hurt you in the long run
Most of these frame laws have come out in the last 10 years thanks to the toll processing companies. When you don't have a frame, their cameras can take a picture of the license plate and the computer can look up your registration and mail you a bill. If you have a frame and the computer can't read the state name, it has to go to a person to manually enter that information, cutting into their profit.
@@stingcool9455 and how would that increase revenue? You’re not thinking like a politician or a government contractor. 🤣
The profit margin here is better because that job is sent oversees
sounds like they need better cameras + software to read plates if this true
WRONG. Obstructed plate violations have been around for a long time.
There were a series of MI plates where the paint just came off. You can get them replaced for free. I got one of mine that way.
Would be interesting to know how man hours per year were taken up with writing these 100k tickets. Just think the savings you'd make by employing this reduced number of police officers or having them deal with real crimes
The bigger question is, how much revenue those tickets generated. It probably more than made up for the man-hours needed to write them. That's what happens when you allow policing-for-profit.
Depending on the area they cover, most cops can have a large amount of down time, so they are expected to write tickets as preventative measures and to prove they are working. One small city in our state has a major interstate running through it. The speeding fines issued on that stretch of interstate is a major portion of that county's annual budget and has been for decades. I know it's there and I've still managed to slip up and get caught twice over the years. My bad. I deserved the tickets.
Another favorite NJ equipment violation is a dim/ out license plate light.
NJ does not use plate stickers for registration.
And once again, Steve covers my observation right at the end:)
The cops need a 'probable cause' to pull a vehicle over. While watching Live PD on TV, which was at night time, the main reason (excuse) that they used was that the Rear License Plate Light was out!
This is why all of mine have duel LED globes that get replaced every three years regardless.
In NY, the inspection and registration stickers are on the lower left of the windshield.
The beginning of every month they setup 'check points' usually at an on ramp to one of the interstates just to check the stickers. If it's expired, then they have you pull over where the other two or three officers are sitting writing tickets.
Now the NJPD will have to use asset forfeiture just to make budget…
In my neck of the woods, anything on the windshield or within the visible range of the area of the wipers wipe is a view obstruction…including cracks.
the quality of plates here in MI is crap... you are lucky if the plate lasts long enough before all the paint peels off before you are required by the Secretary of State to get a new one. many people just drive around with a bare metal plate because they dont think they should be responsible to pay for a new one when they barely last a few years...
They do the same in my rust belt state. It's not our fault that the plates don't last in this environment!
@@pa28cfi neither have I, but if you have kept your old plates from over the years to back when they just used to be the blue background, you can tell they are just cheap now. I dont remember ever seeing plates with paint peeling off like they do now either. I never have had a plate fall apart, but i see tons of them on the road which should be an indication they arent made like they they used to be and something is wrong.
I have a friend who's Uncle was a State Trooper. He said they pull over everyone they clock going just under the speed limit because most of the time they are doing something illegal and they drive extra carefully to ensure they aren't pulled over.
Courts have found that following the speed limit cannot be reasonable suspicion to pull someone over, because following the law is a legal requirement.
NY still has their license plate law which is just are restrictive, and guess what: it's also illegal to have stickers in your back window ("The use or placing of posters or stickers on windshields or rear windows of motor vehicles other than those authorized by the commissioner, is hereby prohibited."). So any college stickers on the window are illegal.
PBA stickers, however, are well known to never have an issue with restricted views.
TH-camr rob got a ticket for an expired NY inspection sticker when he visited a friending NYC . The car was registered in NJ, had NJ plates, rob has a NJ license, lives in NJ has a businesses in NJ. NY said fuck you pay us cause it's illegal to drive around with an expired inspection sticker
@@madashell7224 I don't think they really enforce it, but simply having the law gives the opportunity for pretextual stops.
I lived in Jersey for a while. Whenever I think about my experiences in NJ, gardening never comes to mind.
I'm always annoyed when I buy a new car and the dealer puts the stupid frame on with his logo/name blocking part of the plate. That means I just dropped 50k on a car and then i have to unscrew the plate, trash the frame. They should make this illegal but then not fine the driver but rather fine the dealers for selling cars with partially covered plates. That would stop that ugly practice quickly.
Every time I buy a car I have to tell them to not to replace the license plate frame. I live in PA where the state name is up top so most dealer plates have the thick edge with their name at the bottom. My wife and I have specialty plates though where it says Pennsylvania on the bottom. That makes their frames illegal. Instead we use basic metal frames that are thin all the way around. I've also learned to make sure the inspection stickers are up to date and watch out for obnoxious dealer logos on the back.
In the UK a car can fail an MOT/yearly inspection (after the car is 3 years old from new) due to items hanging from your rear view mirror
Too many laws on the books are enacted to extract money from citizens.
Steve, I don't know if it's the same thing as here in Pennsylvania. We have issues with the paint or laminate peeling off the surface of the metal. What we have to do, in that case, is go to a PA inspection station. They fill a form out, confirming that the plate can not be read from a distance of 50 feet. You mail, that slip to the DMV. The DMV, will then issue a new plate to you to replace the unreadable plate.
The last time I got pulled over the cop came up and asked me if I had just entered the highway at the previous on ramp and I said no (truthfully). He then apologized for stopping me as he was already pretty sure I wasn't the car he was intending to pull over and let me resume traveling with no additional interactions (no checking license and registration or anything else).
I have often wondered if he was intending to hit on some gal he was expecting to find in my car.
They may actually have good reason for that. There may be a bolo out for a vehicle but no registration given, just a rough location which would mean last on ramp.
Its iffy but there is in exceptional circumstances reason for it.
@@cgi2002 Never could understand why bolo's are issued. 98% of cops are blind anyway.
@@rumplestiltskin7304 it's a cover your ass thing. If they issue it they can claim they looked atleast. And occasionally that 2% that aren't blind (or more often than not the automated systems in cctv control rooms) spot the vehicle.
So when are we going to get rid of the silly law requiring a vehichle licence plate.
I've always just regarded these types of tickets as just an extra tax on drivers. A way to increase revenue. It's obvious they are not a safety issue and are just meant to harass and raise revenue. Everyone I knew recognized this and we just paid the fine/tax so we could continue to get to work.
@@perryelyod4870 Your name for them may be better than mine :)
I've gotten a ticket in NY for 'map light on while car in motion' and in VT for doing 60 in a 55mph zone. Crazy.
They created a law here for license frames, they covered the French text on the bottom of the plate. Yes, it's a political thing. The next party that got elected, redesigned the plate for the bottom was empty, not sure if the law is still on the books.
Some plates are covered with a vinyl or plastic wrap like material. These car peel off and you end up with a embossed but blank looking plate. Low bid, right?
Quebec? Louisiana?
@@stevepettersen3283 There's only one officially bilingual Province, it's not Quebec
Here in NY, about 10 years ago I think, there was a bunch of plates that were made with some sort of manufacturing defect. They started peeling. The DMV said we had to trade these plates in. Kicker was they wanted to charge for the replacement. I saw so many creative ways of ppl trying to avoid having to trade in and pay due to those defective plates. Clear packing tape, nail polish (painting the missing numbers), heck some coated it in clear epoxy.
Underhanded way to create probable cause for fishing expedition, at minimum extort drivers of their hard earned money. Winning hearts and minds?
I live in an area with considerable thru traffic.Major, tourist trap, two major interstates converge, huge university and massive government DOD/DOE installation. I would love to see the frames made illegal. Due to vanity plates, it's no longer easy to make out the state. Huge problem.
@@cliftonmcnalley8469 Why does it make any difference what state the car/plate is from unless you are a cop looking to up your quota fulfillment? And vanity plates have the exact same size of letters/numbers as a regular plate. How does that make it harder to read the state? Only Karens want to be License Plate Police.
@@dalewalker4614 The licensing state makes a HUGE difference if the driver does something wrong and needs/deserves to be reported or stopped. I witnessed an issue once and though I couldn't memorize and see the tag number fast enough, I saw the plates were from Arizona. That sticks out like a sore thumb in Tennessee. "A two-tone beige conversion van with Arizona plates" is a very specific descriptor.
Also living in a mountainous tourist trap area as I do, it's very important for responsible defensive driving to give "flatlanders" a much wider berth than normal in certain driving situations.
License plate frames are purely aesthetic and of zero use. If they block the state name they are a problem.
Hey Steve, what about the Police being able to verify the insurance from the Car's License Plate? It happened to me in Independence Oregon. I wasn't even driving. I was parked in a parking lot temporarily while changing my tire.
Licence plate readers can return insurance information in many states.
If the plate frames are or were illegal, you can be damned sure I'd never have one on my automobiles, including insisting nay dealer remove their frame from any newly purchased car.
I aways remove the frame. I took my car in for routine maintenance and the shop took it upon itself to install it’s own marketing frame. I had them remove it.
This is good illustration to the moral deficiency of our justice. No matter how petty, bureaucratic, making no sense the "complaint" is, the accused has no recourse for his time, money, and aggravation. Police officer can write a ticket that makes no sense at all, but the best outcome for the accused is only to be found not guilty. However ridiculous the case was, he is getting no compensation from the state. It would be very fair if the judge could order the state to compensate the citizen, or if every citizen whose case was dropped could go after the state for the damages resulting from the proceedings, and the agency that did it was taking some financial hit. Until this is the case, all so called "law enforcement" is 90% bureaucracy and only 10% actually going after actually bad guys.
"OK, readers, get ready for some secret stuff, never seen on TV and unmentioned in the Daily Fish Wrap tossed to your front door. Are you seated? Do you have a grip? Here it is: The criminal justice system does not spend much time arresting and sentencing real bad guys.
“What?” you say. “That’s impossible!” No doubt you want to challenge me. Do not I, like you, watch the news and see that every single day some bank robber, carjacker, or child molester has been rounded up? Of course, but I see what you don’t-that for every serious bad guy arrested, hundreds of petty offenders go to jail. What the criminal justice system actually does most of the time is process the third group of players, the clueless horde. Clueless petty offenders are by far the most important players in the system because, without their vast numbers, and the money that is extracted from them and their families, cops and judges would be filing for unemployment and all those brand-new police stations, jails, and administrative offices would have “for rent” signs hammered in their immaculate lawns.
Who are these people, the bread and butter-nay, the staff of life-for millions of municipal and state employees? They are people who
» possess small quantities of drugs
» get an attitude with police
» yell at their wives and girlfriends
» drive with suspended licenses
» do malicious mischief
» create disturbances at clubs and parties
» ride bikes at night without a light (I’m not kidding!)
» get arrested as accessories during police raids
» carry medications without the proper labels or prescriptions
» “loiter,” i.e., hang out
» take pocketknives and nail scissors to school
» drink alcohol in public"
(from the book "Arrest-Proof Yourself" by Dale Carson)
However it IS totally legit to ticket for those smoked plastic covers over their plates. I've been behind countless cars in Michigan where I'm right behind them and I can't read the plate.
I've asked cops about those and they've told me ABSOLUTELY those are illegal. They don't typically pull over for it but having one means the cops have an excuse to pull you over whenever they like.
Most of those folks are cops.
Why are you worried about what the license plate on the car in front of you says???
@@dalewalker4614 I'm not worried about it. Just pointing out that it's very obviously illegal, if even driving directly behind I can't read it. It's illegal to deliberately obscure the plate.
I've been given a license plate frame ticket in NJ, and was happy to take it, because I was speeding and he gave me that zero point ticket instead as a warning.
Truth
Legit question
What if you come from out of state, where no one cares about license plate frames?
For example, if you’re from Kansas (one license plate stste) and come to Illinois, they can’t give you A ticket for one plate, because they are legal in Kansas (registration state)
The laws of the state you are actually in apply, regardless of registration. I am curious how many out of state vehicles get pulled over this.
@@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou The laws of the state in which the car is registered apply, no matter which state you are visiting. I think that's what you meant to say.
@@themidsouthcyclist8880
Yes, this may be how I should have worded it. Once you cross a state line, the officers in that state are only required to know the applicable laws for that one state and will ignore laws from the other 49, as of right now, states. If you have a totally legal for Kansas licence plate frame and as long as the New Jersey law doesn't exempt out-of-state lawfully registered vehicles, the cop will most probably utilise it as an easy way to meet their quota.
Hey Lord Rayden@ well if you're from outta state the cops already take that as an opportunity for a shake down. Families traveling on vacation have horror stories about civil forfeiture...highway armed robbery!!!
I got this type of ticket in NJ twice. In both cases they were “breaks” to avoid a small speeding ticket since there’s no points/non-moving violations and are rarely contested in court. They used to give cell phone violations until those became more substantial. In NJ, to fight a ticket requires 2 court appearances. Both of the “towns” involved were very small and on one strip of the main or only road through it and seem to exist primarily for ticketing purposes. Maybe the law change will create more moving violations. Hard to imagine revenue generation will change. Look for a change in the types of tickets written.
When I by a car I make it a point to tell the dealership to remove all dealership advertising from the car. Sometimes they leave a small sticker on the tailgate or trunk and I let that go but I didn't buy my car to be their billboard. That stuff really cheezes me off.
It did result in me getting free mudflaps for a car once cause all they had was dealerbranded mudflaps. 😅 I will be their billboard if I get 200 bucks in mudflaps for free.😅
Just goes to show.... everyone does have a price. lol
What a waste of time and money and resources .I’m glad I live in a state that doesn’t have ridiculous laws .God bless South Carolina
Those poor policemen! If the law passes, they'll have to find some other ridiculous reason to pull people over. They'll still pull people over for it. They just won't be able to issue a tickets.
They'll pull you over for worn muffler bearings so they can peek inside your car for guns, drugs & alcohol.... 😏
I think it was pretty funny that TH-cam gave me a Carvana ad leading into your video! Lmao…
Personally, if a dealership put their frame on any vehicles I own, I'd ask for at least $300 a year for advertising. If they don't agree, their frame would be removed.
I take mine off before I drive off the lot.
I’d remove it anyway, I didn’t take out a loan for tens of thousands of dollars just to advertise for the dealership
That's always part of the deal when I buy a car. No license plate frames, no dealer stickers, etc. Started doing that as rust avoidance back in the days when they'd actually drill holes in the car to mount their silly little dealer plates.
The last new car I bought I called & got the exact price for the car + taxes & license so I could take a cashier's check to pay for the car (NO upsells or add-on arguments). I told the salesman in advance NOT to drill the front bumper for a license plate bracket and NOT to place a dealership decal anywhere on the car. When we arrived to pick up the car just before quitting time they had placed a dealership decal on the back of the car and were preparing to drill the front bumper for the license plate bracket. I sat down with their "finance manager" (closer) & told him to have someone remove the decal, and that if they drilled the bumper, they just bought the car back!
He said he could have someone remove the decal but claimed the law required them to install the license bracket. I called him on his BS and asked him to show me the code that required the dealership to do so.... (My state does require a front plate, but they can't pull you over for lack of one.) Of course there is no law requiring the dealership to install the license plate holder, so he relented and went into his spiel to sell me undercoating, paint protection and engraved glass. I reminded him that I had specifically made a deal with NO addons and the check lying on his desk in front of me was for the exact amount agreed to. When he claimed that "the law REQUIRED him to offer me each option, with an explanation, I had had enough. I quietly stood up, picked up the cashier's check for $25K+ and walked out of his office without saying another word.
My wife just sat there watching him watching me with his jaw on the desk. As I walked out of the showroom she looked at him and in her sweet southern drawl told him that if he didn't apologize to me before I reached her car, that there was no way I would buy the car from him..... The old fart was out of breath as he caught me just as I was about to her car. Apparently his bluffs had never caused anyone to walk out on him before and his apology seemed at least a little bit sincere. Five minutes later I had the keys and receipt for the car in hand. He seemed relieved as he walked us to the showroom door, and THEN I let him know that during negotiations his salesman had made me a "counter-offer" that was $800 LESS than I had offered to pay for the car! With a big grin on my face I shook his hand and then disappeared into the night with my new car.
*** The REASON I didn't want to display a front plate, besides how badly it distracts from the looks of my car, is that a license plate is a PERFECT reflector of a radar or lidar beam, giving the officer an accurate speed reading every time. My new PT Cruiser GT has multiple compound curves on the front of the car that disperse & scatter the beams, making it all but impossible for an officer to get a reading of my speed long enough to lock in. After 20 years and going through many speed traps at "slightly over the limit" I have never been stopped for speeding. But I have had a few highway patrol officers shake their fist at me (or occasionally wave) as I passed by them, parked in the median of the freeway trying to catch me with their radar.... 😎
New Jersey registration is a separate card. If caught driving with an expired registration the car is impounded and towed.
Gotta love New Jersey, right?
heres a crazy idea standard plate size, standard letter/ number size, state identifier left hand side of plate, there you go problem solved, oh and also cut down and drive by crimes numberplates front and rear, reflective yellow to the rear and white to the front, simple idea has been done all across europe & Uk and Northern ireland for years, oh and for the record articulated vehicle trailers in the EU have a seperate red plate on them(the registration plate for the trailer) as well as displaying on the rear of the trailer the registration plate of the articulated unit towing said trailer, also in Europe, it is a requirement to have normally a 2 letter country designator and/or the EU flag, it is a option now here in the UK to have a Union Jack Flag and the letters UK underneath either as a add on stickers (2 of) or you can have plates made, in fact the stickers are available on the UK Amazon site, with the amount of gangs committing crime from cars or leaving scenes of crime /hit run and general vehicle based crime in the US 2 plates that are easily identifable doubles your chance of identifying the registered keeper of such vehicle, and reduce spurious fines for number plate "covers" whats not to lose, oh and as a bonus it creates more plates to be made,but i forgot you dont have nationwide annual safety checks MOTs UK or TUV tests Germany :(
"Problem solved", lol. Governments WANT problems, they puposefully create them, they make laws to insure that revenue stream. Solving problems is not what our many governments do. They create problems in order to generate revenue. Geez, guys, WAKE UP.
My home state uses 2 stickers. One for the month, the other one is the last 2 digits of the year. When you renew your Tabs as we call it, you get a new year sticker that is color coded different then the previous year. Ours go in the lower left for the month and lower right is of course they year. We used to get new plate about every 7 years. Most people just put the new year tab over the old one. In my state if a person makes a mistake and puts the wrong sticker on the wrong car if they have 2 or more cars due in the same month, I have heard you can call or stop in the local Deputy Register (or DMV) advise them of your mistake and they can get the correction made or requested in the computer. Our year stickers have a bar code or actual #'s on the tab to id it in case of theft or other issues. My home state is west of yours Steve. I am in the upper midwest.
I see many, many cars with darkened plastic obscuring their license plates apparently for the purpose of defeating traffic light cameras. I don't think that should be legal.
The traffic light cameras emit a strong flash of light when they take picture, regardless of time of day, so the smoked cover doesn't defeat the traffic light camera. On the other hand, 2 or 3 coats of glossy clear paint applied to a new plate can often cause the bright reflection of the flash to obscure the numbers on the plate..... Don't ask me how I know that. lol
I had this problem in OKLAHOMA one time we had that frame on that frame on my car fore years in my home state of ALABAMA
The officer didn’t give me a ticket but he did lecture us over it
Ben is under the front tire of the Turbine car
Very good eye.
The fact states have such laws is beyond ridiculous!
Was pulled over in Metro Detroit in 1971 for doing 26 mph in a 25 mph zone. It's rather amazing that the cop radar equipment was so accurate and precise then... 🤣
Speedometers and odometers are only required to be accurate to within 4% by the feds. 26 is legitimately within the allowed margin of error!
In Arid-zona there is still a law making it illegal to display SOME license plate frames and ALL license plate covers. The states rationale regarding license plate frames, if I'm not mistaken, was that they don't want the registration tags obscured. As such, only those license plate frames that do not obscure the state name, the state motto, and the registration tags can be displayed on vehicles in the state of Arizona. With respect to license plate covers, that law was passed back in the day when people used reflective license plate covers to make it more difficult to read the license plate.
The plate frame law was put on the books specifically for the state name due to LEOs complaining about the volume of different plate designs we have. You can put any frame you desire on your plate, so long as it does not block the state name. Furthermore, LEOs cannot pull you over just for that violation, hence the reason AZ has a lot of plate frame violations even today, long after that law was passed.
It would be nice if the Law Makers wrote in the Legislation, if a Police Officer pulls a person over for this Violation and is thrown out of Court, the Fee then transfer to the Law Enforcement Officer to pay PERSONALLY
The reflective paint has a predictable lifespan.
A company put of Erie PA I drove for had to replace all the old plates in the fleet. We couldn't go through a scale without getting stopped on the platform while empty. Pulled around back and asked the third straight week in Florida.
America is over policed. IMO, We could cut every department across the country in half and it wouldn’t affect crime.
As a NJ resident, I'm so happy to see this. I don't have a frame, I just hate ridiculous pretexts for pulling people over and extracting money, or bootstrapping into something else.
how often does the officer run the tags before pulling them over, proving it was a bogus charge.
In Pennsylvania they did away with the registration stickers. When a officer scan’s the plate it tells them if it’s registered and insured. Usually if it’s scanned and your not speeding they just scan your plate and don’t bother you.
I wonder about those plates that are covered with a tinted plastic cover that makes it very difficult to read the plate. Is that legal?
Most 🇺🇸states or 🇨🇦provinces. My buddy is on highway patrol unit, they seize them all the time
Most states, no. They are polarized to make it impossible for the red light , speed cameras to photograph.
@@paulshannon4576 wich is good. Since those are unconstitutional
@@pain_weaver I don't remember reading about speed cameras in the constitution! LOL
@@JackRainfield don't be so daft. The constitution and bill of rights sets limits on gov.
I got one of those license plate tickets in NJ back in 2015. I had forgotten that the cops in that town make it a point of hanging out on Rt 73 during morning rush hour and pulling people over non-stop for bs tickets. I guess that's how they make most of their money, and I make it a point to avoid that town since then.