ABC13 Eyewitness News
(9/09/03 - HOUSTON) — Is any part of your car's license plate partially covered by a frame or any stickers? If it is, you're breaking the law, and don't be too surprised if a state trooper soon pulls you over.

Several Texans we spoke to didn't even know they were breaking the new license plate law. What's legal and what isn't and why? First, it's a new state law passed by the legislature. It became effective on September 1.

DPS Trooper John Sampa explained, "If a bracket or some type of device obstructs the visibility of the license plate, meaning that it touches the letters, touches the numbers or alters the design of the plate, that gives an officer probable cause to make a traffic stop."

And give you a ticket with of fine of up to $200. The rationale behind this -- officers need to clearly see a license plate in case they have to investigate a potential suspect.

We went out on the road and saw lots of vehicles with illegal license plates. Some didn't even have a license plate on the front of the vehicle -- that's illegal, too.

Susan Degner didn't know about the new state law until we told her. Her license plate is partially covered.

"I think it's ridiculous," said Degner. "Everybody's going to have to change the license plate and I don't know where to go to find something to change it out with."

Driver Jane Rulfs didn't know she was breaking the law. "Well, it's the one that the dealer put on. … I'll take it off."

According to Trooper Sampa, legal license plates should have "nothing that's obscuring the letters, the numbers or the design of the plate. It may look ugly, but in the state of Texas, it's legal."
(Copyright © 2003, KTRK-TV)


http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/909...al_plates.html

 

uhh, wtf?!

 

Dumbest law ever!:shakehd:

 

more money for the state

 

You know someone ther may want to do a little research. There was a supreme court case years ago in regards to covering parts of your plates, and it was ruled that as long as youre not covering any important info (numbers and exp date) that is was perfectly legal.

Wish i rememeber the case name...

 

Most states have those laws.

 

oops, that's me.

 

I've heard that if you don't have a front license plate AND you have something covering your plate in texas they put you on death row.

 

Don't be silly. You have to have at least 35% tint, too.

 

me 3

 

there are a lot of stupid laws..... like pot should be legalized or decrminalized, but its not....

 

A little less than a year ago the State Troopers here were pulling over everybody (including me) w/o front plates. This lasted for about a month. Ever since then my car has the front plate on it. Not worth 200 bones for not having a plate.

P.S. Corvette owners are screwed.

 

makes sense to me. If your frame is covering up your registration or the numbers you should get a ticket.


what you guys see wrong w/ this

 

The problem is our registrations are on the windshield. If you take a look at the link. They said license plate frame covers from the dealers are also illegal.

 

i gota a ticket once for having a clear cover over my plate. cop said the dirt on it made the plate hard to read

 

did you have to pay the ticket even if you put the front plate bag on?

 

Naw, I lied my ass off and told the cop that the original one feel off and I had one on order. So he let me go.

 

I know of several corvette owners that have never gotten screwed with. Its the car

 

i havent had my front LP on since like 98 and ive been pulled over before and they never said anything about it. i guess ive been lucky so far. as far as the corvette, i thought there were a few cars that were allowed to not have a front LP due to the design.

 

There may be some truth to that.

 

I've seen vette's with plates. The vette symbol in the front bumper is on a removable piece of plastic, you can take that off and put a plate there. Same witht the Trans Ams.

 

MA has had this law for many years. No frames covering any of the lettering/numbering, even if it is just part of the word "Massachusetts".

License plate covers, including clear ones, are also illegal.

 

I haven't had my plate on for a year *knock on wood* no issues yet. Just so long as I don't give them another excuse or reason to pull meo ver I think I'm ok

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that law. Lots of states have the same law and the citizens are doing just fine; it's about time Texas caught up with the rest of the country, Texans will be just fine. There is absolutely no legitimate reason why anyone would need anything in and around the licence plate area. The only reason why something would be in that position near the plate is your own choice; so you make the choice to now receive the ticket.

BTW, the only people who are against the law are the lawbreakers. The majority of the rest of the law abiding citizens could care less.

 

I hope I'm not skewing from the topic. I also hope I don't sound antagonistic, but I just wanted to add something.

kensteele, I understand your point of view. Laws should be followed. However, if you are against a law, that does not brand you a lawbreaker. Changes only come from dissent. The people who you say "do not care" are the same people who were afraid to raise their hand in grade school. Just because people don't say anything does not mean they agree or like the law. It more than likely says that person does not understand the system. That person doesn't understand that with enough dissention, laws can and will be changed. It's wrong to brand people who do not agree with a law lawbreakers. They in fact
may be more righteous, as they actually have the balls to "speak out"

In addition kensteele, there is no legitimate reason you need a 30,000 dollar vehicle.

"The only reason why something would be in that position near the plate is your own choice; so you make the choice to now receive the ticket."

By saying that, you invalidating people's choices. You are saying my choice to vote is illegitimate? Your reasons for wanting a 30,000 dollar vehicle are illegitimate?

I disagree with the law, and I'm sure others do too. Look at the picture posted by SilverKnight, it does not cover any vital portions of the plate.

As far as front plates, well damn...I, even driving at thirty miles an hour, have never been able to read a license plate on a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. Nor have I been able to read license plates on vehicles passing while I was checking my mail. Cops stop you from behind. Only reason I can surmise is they want additional money, just as gdubb said. To me, that's an illegitimate reason.

 

Here is a more detailed description and interpretation of the law (also some other interesting points at the website as well);

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/pending/texasplate.asp

 

C'mon man.

Ok. Of course simply being against the law does not make you a lawbreaker. If you know about the law, and you are against it, and you still don't follow the law...then that makes you a lawbreaker. But a simple lawbreaker...who deserves only a small $200 fine.

Texans need to get over it. All the other states passed the law on the first date of some month, they didn't send notices in the mail to all state residents, the cops diligently enforced the most blatant violations at their discretion, people learned....and guess what? Everybody lived and everybody is happy (except the criminals of course). It's a fan-fucking-tastic law, it's very easy to comply with (anyone can come into compliance within 5-10 minutes and stay in compliance indefinitely), it doesn't cost anything to comply...and you say residents should have a say whether this should be a law or not?

This coming December, anybody who has a tinted cover over their licence plates fully deserves a $200 fine. It's only $200. It's not jail time, it doesn't scar you for life. That's the difference between a simple traffic violation and a major felony federal civil rights violation. Unfortunately, this law is here to stay in Texas.

So give me one legitimate reason why a Texas resident could go before a judge and explain why part of his/her license plate is obscured and deserves to have it that way without a fine.

BTW, it's not a bad thing to be a lawbreaker. I am a lawbreaker. I speed constantly. But I don't call the speeding laws stupid.

 

Ken,
This is the first time I express my disagreement with you on this board. I did an observation and noticed that 80% of random cars around me for the last 2 weeks had some sort of license plate frames on.
1. Why are the frames there? Dealers put them on and drivers didn't care. Majority of them don't even notice.

2. The plate itself is not straight, it's an eye sore to see plates' conners sticking out (due to the number/letter imprint process).
Personally, I have a plain black frame that I made myself to keep the plate straightened out.

3. What's wrong with frames that are not covering any part of the letters and numbers? It makes no sense to get a ticket for a frame that covers the little cowboy image at the bottom of the plate. Come on, please don't tell me the cowboy image would make it any easier to identify my car or the state in which my car is register . Besides, if that little image is so important where the heck is it in the plate in the link below?
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/graphics/txplate.jpg

4. I never call speeding law stupid even though I got ticketed in the pass. However, this law is definately stupid for not clearly define what is legal and what is not. They makes it unclear so each law officer can interpret it whichever way he/she wants to. Obviously, its whole purpose is to generate more revenue for the state.

 

 

Actually that is probably 1/4 of the case. The most probable reason for them passing this law is to give law enforcement officers 'probable cause' to stop a vehicle which in other ways they probably would not have justification to do so. More than likely (as such as the lack of a front plate in Texas) it really depends on who pulls you over and how much of a prick they feel like being that day.

Most of the laws in the books can be interepreted in many, many different ways (hehe that's why we have lawyers ) so this law is not any different. One fine example is the video screen statute that was passed, it was actually an Amendment to more clearly define what constituted a 'Video device'.

The law is passed and there is not really much that can be done about it this time around, now if everyone feels that strongly about it you should probably write the lawmakers in Austin and let them know how you feel about it, and if they agree they could possibly push for legislation that would repeal this law (not very likely though).

 

This is the principal reason why I agree with SilverKnight. As was stated earlier, a large number of drivers on the road probably don't realize that they even have license plate frames because they were put on by the dealer. And they in no way block the license plate number. Now, the "shaded" covers that actually make it difficult to read the numbers are a different story, but that's not what we're debating here. We're debating *frames*, by definition something that goes *around* what you're looking at and not obstructing it.

 

Law been in NYC for a long time. Well i can see it on commerical plates because, the stupid frame actually does cover commerical on the plate. The company that I work for has to take those stupid things off from the dealer. On the passenger it kinda doesn't cover anything really. None of the people that have the frames really get a tik for that on their personal car. We only seen it on commerical cars that get it.

 

OK folks I saw this and might clear up some of your opinions about the issue;

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/918...nseplate3.html

Basically what it says is the following;
The new law regulates anything which obscures the plate and since we told you about the story last week, we've gotten a lot of emails and phone calls from people concerned about getting a ticket.

The Toll Road Authority asked for the law because of people who try to cover up their plates in order to get a free ride on the city's toll roads.

So if your frame doesn't go beyond advertising a car dealership or cheering on a team, then law officials say you should be fine. Click here for the new law on the state's web site.
(Copyright © 2003, KTRK-TV)

So it's basically for those dumbasses (and the reason why we have the law, so blame those jackasses) that think they can get out of paying tolls by putting something over the plate to obscure the cameras from photoing the license plate of the offending vehicle!!

 

NWA said it best ''FUCK THA POLICE''.

 

SO TRUE. ken is really tripping this time.

yeah boy...that some serious law breaking

 

its stupid how they always add new laws and dont tell nobody until u get a fuckin ticket

 

The law is so they can take your picture and send you a ticket. Why do I need a front licensplate if my regestration is on my windsheld. Big brother continues to watch!

 

for the cameras to catch u running a light.

 

But what about legalizing pot ?

 

Dont know if anyone has mentioned this (and i cant be bothered reading every post )... but the main reason for this law is for cameras to get a clear and unobstructed view of the plate when passing through the EZ tag lanes.

Apparently there were enough ppl covering up, or trying to cover up their plates so the cameras cant make-out the # and letters on there and send a ticket.

So ppl will have to remove their plates.... BIG DEAL. There are ALOT more important things to worry about in life.

I thought they looked like crap anyway and it was an easy way for dealers to advertise their business on ur plate. No way thats happening on my car