NJ Front License Plate Requirement

[G.Costanza]

Originally Posted by GS37

Cops in New Jersey seem to feel that this window tint issue is a paramount safety issue and anyone whose windows are tinted is hiding a firearm in the car and will begin shooting at will at any police officers that gets in the way. This really is puzzling to folks in LE in other states where tint is perfectly legal. That said, a great many of the people rolling around with dark tinting do seem to be folks who are in need of a good once-over by Johnny Law, but that's purely anecdotal.

It's probably not purely anecdotal, there's a bit of a correlation there. A lot of law-abiding citizens such as myself would put on symmetrical tint on all 4 windows if it was allowed. People who are flouting all sorts of laws anyways, well they'll hardly care about the tint laws.

[RobRiguez]

I have tints on all my windows since the 90's (Save the front). I used to go with 5% all around but as I got older I started caring more about seeing out of my windows at night. Now I dont have anything over 20%. Ive gotten pulled over a couple times, recieved a few tickets and even been made to peel them off in front of the officer once. But 99% of the time cops have bigger things to worry about so they dont bother me. When they do, its 50-150 in fines and I keep it moving.

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by GS37

Care to comment on how that case was resolved? Common sense dictates that a driver can't remove the tint when he gets out of the car or when someone else drives it! I hope you wrote an e-mail to the Sgt. in charge of patrol and the chief after the ticket was resolved.

My wife was 3 months pregnant with my youngest and was taking the older two to her mom's house for the day. The family car was a Chevy Equinox at the time, 2009 LTZ AWD, all black with 5% tint all around, it actually looked pretty cool for a mom mobile.

Anyway, she was driving down Route 38 in Cherry Hill and a cop came up behind her and paced her for about 1/2 mile. She said he pulled up next to her on the right, sat there for about 30 seconds and then through on the flashers and pulled behind her.

He came up to the car and went through the normal BS. He asked if she knew that tinting the front windows was illegal in NJ. She said she did, but that I had a medical exception and showed him the paperwork. He looked it over and said well, this is for a Mr. and this car is registered to a Mrs. My wife explained to him that we had two cars and used this one for taking the family places, so since I drove it, it was allowed to be tinted. He gave her the ticket anyway and advised her that if she removed it and appeared at court, the judge would most likely drop the charge.

So, I take the day off from work, drop the kids off at my mom's and drag my now 5 months pregnant wife into traffic court in Cherry Hill. We wait in line for the prosecutor and then sit down with him. My wife tells the story, I show him my vitiligo spots on my arm and show him all the paperwork. The prosecutor apologized and said he would move to dismiss and would have us called first to get us out of there.

True to his word, we were called first and the prosecutor told the judge he wanted to dismiss the charge. When asked why the prosecutor said, "because the officer made a mistake". The judge apologized and home we went.

[TheCity]

I believe NJ should keep license plates in the front. This is to help law enforcement solve possible hit and run accidents or to capture fugitives with stolen cars.

[joe moving]

thecity - good point. i think only people who care about having to have them are people who don't like how it looks on their nice cars.

[USER876]

I am a car enthusiast and also don't have a front plate. Most cars are not setup from the factory to accept a front plate and you have to drill holes right into the car. This ruined a sale of one of my "enthusiast" rare cars to an out of state buyer. His state didn't require the plate and he didn't want the holes in the front bumper. Oh well.

I think if they made any real difference, other states would be requiring them instead of NJ looking to delete the requirement.

I don't mind placing my front plate in the front window (windshield) though, maybe that is a decent compromise.

[frankgn87]

Originally Posted by TheCity

I believe NJ should keep license plates in the front. This is to help law enforcement solve possible hit and run accidents or to capture fugitives with stolen cars.

wrong. Other states that only have rear tags have their hit and runs and fugitive capture cases solved just as well as NJ who has front tags. You do understand that if they catch a fugitive and pull them over, the cop sees their back tags as he is behind him? The bad guys run from the cop ans they are behind them not in front of them... Under what circumstance would a cop would ONLY see a front tag and not the rear?

[jknic]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

wrong. Other states that only have rear tags have their hit and runs and fugitive capture cases solved just as well as NJ who has front tags. You do understand that if they catch a fugitive and pull them over, the cop sees their back tags as he is behind him? The bad guys run from the cop ans they are behind them not in front of them... Under what circumstance would a cop would ONLY see a front tag and not the rear? absurd. You are not thinking.

It helps me when we're trying to guess if it's an undercover cop.