License Plate Flippers Let Drivers Get Previous Cops And Tolls – And States Are Cracking Down

Cheapskates have lengthy used a gadget identified license plate flippers to keep away from paying tolls. To some, skipping out on paying to drive on toll roads could seem akin to the story of Robin Hood, however extra hardened criminals additionally use license plate flippers to cover their identities.

Whereas most states have legal guidelines on the books making it unlawful to change or cover a automobile’s license plate, Orlando Florida’s Information 6 reviews a brand new set of legal guidelines (HB 253) within the Sunshine State make doing so a extra critical offense.

“HB 253 additionally says that alterations to license plates now represent a second-degree misdemeanor, fairly than a noncriminal visitors violation.

This is applicable to any of the next conditions:

• Mutilating or defacing a registered license plate

• Altering the plate’s shade

• Making use of reflective materials, spray, protecting or anything that may obscure the plate

• Attaching an illuminated machine that may stop somebody from studying the plate”

Simply buying or proudly owning a “license plate obscuring machine” in Florida is now a second-degree misdemeanor that would land you 60 days in jail plus fines as much as $500. Individuals discovered responsible of “creating or promoting” such a tool, a first-degree misdemeanor can go to jail for a 12 months together with a $1,000 wonderful. Utilizing a tool to obscure your license plate whereas committing against the law is a third-degree felony with fines as much as $5,000 and 5 years in jail.

Legal guidelines in different states, akin to Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Texas (though Texans may very well be justified in hiding certainly one of the worst state license plate designs), are imposing stiffer penalties for obscuring a automobile’s license plate as properly. Whereas gadgets used for hiding license plates initially had benign makes use of, a rising development sees them used extra ceaselessly by criminals, in line with state line.

“License plate flippers are generally used for aesthetic functions at auto exhibits, the place they permit drivers to change between customized or ornamental plates. However throughout the nation, hundreds of drivers additionally flip or cowl their license plates to evade detection — whether or not by regulation enforcement, toll methods or automated velocity cameras.”

Tennessee’s anti-plate-flipping regulation went into impact in July 2024, beneath which shopping for or possessing a license plate flipper is assessed as a Class B misdemeanor. As well as, the regulation specifies a Class A misdemeanor-charge for anybody who “acts with felony negligence and manufactures, sells, gives to promote, or in any other case distributes a license plate flipper.”

The Tennessee regulation describes a license plate flipper as any handbook, digital, or mechanical machine that enables a motorcar operator to obscure the automobile’s license plate. Obscuring a license plate contains alternating between two or extra plates, hiding the plate from view, or making the license numbers “not seen.”

The ethical of the story? Do not do unlawful stuff except you are prepared for the penalty.