I haven't run a front plate on most of my cars since 2003.... including my old 350z and S4. I never thought for a second it would be my NSX that would get busted for it... and of course it figures it's the one occasion that I'm over in Issaquah for a Ferrari show.

Trust me people, everyone is strapped for cash... they're looking for reasons to pull people over. If you've skated by in the past you may be in for a surprise now, especially in local areas where the police have "extra" time on their hands for traffic enforcement.

You'd be amazed on how creative you can get with zip ties. I'm going to run it this way until the economy at least gets better.

 

Totally agreed, I have been traffic ticket free since I moved to Seattle (more specifically within the city limit).

I remember I used to get pulled over for anything left & right when I used live in Mill Creek.

 

These are the states that do not require front plates: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia; U.S. territories Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam also do not require an official front license plate.

Here's an interesting story about someone that was stopped for suspicious behavior and no front plate was cited as the primary factor.

Reader's Digest version: A Virginia highway patrolman stops car because of a missing front plate on a rental car from PA (one of 19 states that do not require a front plate). Turns out the driver was in possession of 21 pounds of ganja but the marijuana charge was dropped. According to the judge:

"“[A]ny benefit gained from stopping individual vehicles without a front plate is marginal when compared to the constitutional rights of drivers and their passengers who are seized,” Sharrett wrote in Smith v. Commonwealth (VLW 009-8-105)."

I hate double standards and unless the front plate law is federalized, we should just eliminate the requirement completely. The front-plate requirement goes on my Lame List.

http://www.valawyersweekly.com/weekl...0%99t-hold-up/
Stop for just one license plate doesn’t hold up

By Alan Cooper
May 11, 2009

A Greensville County detective might have suspected there was more amiss than the absence of a front license plate on the rental car from Pennsylvania, but he said that was the reason he pulled the Toyota Matrix with two black males in it on Interstate 95 in July 2008.

Detective Sergeant Benji Ligon’s suspicions proved to be well founded. His drug dog Harley alerted on the console of the car and on the rear of the vehicle. Ligon found crumbles of marijuana in the console and 21 pounds of the drug in a suitcase in the rear of the car. The passenger, Keith E. Smith, and the driver were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute it and with transporting the drug into the state.

But Pennsylvania is one of 19 states that doesn’t require a front license plate, and Ligon testified that he didn’t check to see whether the state had such a requirement before he stopped the car.

Smith’s attorney, Todd A. Pilot of Alexandria, questioned whether that was an altogether honest answer from Ligon, who had been an officer for more than a decade and stopped thousands of cars on I-95 during that time.

He argued that Ligon had to be sure that it was illegal for the car not to have a license plate to create an articulable suspicion that would have justified the stop in the first instance.

Greensville Circuit Judge W. Allen Sharrett agreed and suppressed the marijuana. Prosecutors dropped the charge rather than attempt to appeal the ruling.

“[A]ny benefit gained from stopping individual vehicles without a front plate is marginal when compared to the constitutional rights of drivers and their passengers who are seized,” Sharrett wrote in Smith v. Commonwealth (VLW 009-8-105).

Consideration of the totality of the circumstances, including the officer’s ten years of experience, “show that Detective Ligon lacked reasonable, articulable suspicion of a violation of Virginia law; thus, the traffic stop was improper and the evidence obtained as a result of the stop must be suppressed.”

Pilot said, “I was completely surprised that there was no case on point.”
He relied largely on a 1995 Virginia Court of Appeals case from Richmond, Commonwealth v. Spencer (VLW 095-7-701), which held that the absence of a city or county decal by itself did not create a suspicion of illegal conduct.

The arresting officer in that case acknowledged that he did not check the vehicle’s license plate to see whether it was registered in a locality that did not require a decal, as Richmond did.

Just as some localities in the state did not require a decal, some states do not require a front license plate, so that Ligon had no more suspicion than the officer in Richmond, Sharrett concluded.

Nine of the 19 states that do not require a front license plate are adjacent to Virginia or in the I-95 corridor.

A more recent unpublished opinion, Campbell v. Commonwealth (VLW 007-7-051), found a similar lack of suspicion in the stop of an antique vehicle that did not display an inspection sticker. The arresting officer in that case acknowledged that he was aware of a number of exemptions to the requirement for an inspection sticker when a vehicle displays antique tags.

Pilot had to contend with two court of appeals cases that had found that the absence of a front license plate provided articulable suspicion for a stop. Sharrett agreed with his argument that the cases were not dispositive because they did not indicate whether the rear license was a Virginia or out-of-state plate.

Pilot said he became involved in the case because Smith lived in the Bahamas, and relatives there became concerned after they lost contact with him when he was visiting the friend in Philadelphia who was driving the car.

A friend of a relative knew Pilot and asked him to help find Smith. Pilot located Smith in jail and took over his representation in the criminal case once he had done so.

Click here for the full text of the decision.
© Copyright 2009, by Virginia Lawyers Media, all rights reserved

 

I remember seeing the petition for having WA state joining those 19 state crowd, but always ended up lack of having enough signatures.

 

BTW, can WA state save some $$ by not requiring the front license plate?

If I remember correctly, the license plates aren't recyclable neither.


Regarding to double standards;
I've seen numerous cases where the state release criminals from jail due to the budget issue.
I don't know why our state is insisting to require the front license plate even though it adds x2 cost of a single rear license plate.

 

If your vehicle is registered in Washington, the front plate ticket CAN only be written and enforced by Washington State Law enforcement...I.E. EVEN if ione is REQUIRED in Idaho, YOUR Washington State car CAN NOT be cited for no front plate outside the State of Washington..ALL other "rules of the road" items do apply however, such as speeding, tailight out etc etc..

BUT equipment rules, that are STATE specific, CAN NOT be enforced by other Jursdictions that the car is not registered in..

I.E. California DOES have a law, rarely enforced, that outlaws the use of speed measuring devices on a private car *(like radar detector), HOWEVER they can not enforce that requirment upon a WASHINGTON Sate registered car that has these items installed and you are NOT a resident of California..

There are a lot of these back and forth different rules of the road laws that are State Specific..NOW that is not saying YOU wont get the ticket, a lot of time you still will because they figure you will not go through the trouble of fighting it if you are out of state...HOWEVER, must ALL courts allow a plea in writing for an out of state offense...which I have doen and been succesful each time.

 

Awesome looks like I will be taking off my front plate when I go back to Idaho.

 

The only time I had anyone say anything about the license plate was when I went down to Olympia and the guy just gave me a warning... I guess they don't have anything better to do down there than to harass visitors.

 

this is simple....

run without the plate and pracitce your look of surprise while driving.... that way IF you ever get stopped you can give the officer the well practiced "look of surprise" and state

"Son of a Biach! Not a day goes by when some part doesnt fall off this car. DAMMIT!!"

and explain that you will back track and try and find your plate that was

"just on there yesterday when I washed it!"

 

I had this Hide Away/Stealth Front Plate Holder on my Dinan 3.

 

cool, and it doubles as a "mini spoiler" when in the down position...are you getting any downforce out of it

 

Wow - $10 fix it ticket sounds pretty good.

Sparcos were great laterally but too low for me.

I don't plan on giving up the S2K - it's too much fun and given the market - I'd rather have the car than the $$$ Still lovin' the little Honda.

Back in Seattle? The Tuesday meet is still going - only it's @ Crapplebee's on 140th now.

 

Boy I really wish I could've put that hide-away plate on mine but as you can see, the BMW has a flat spot for the mount. Neither the Audi nor the Porsche has that.

 

Ask the officer if you drive a lamborghini would you make it ugly by putting a plate in front?
-exactly

 

I guess it depends on location. I drive my car daily (live near Greenlake in Seattle) and have never been pulled over for no front plate. In fact, I go weeks without seeing a cop in my area or downtown! However, when I'm out on the east side, cops are ubiquitous. But my car is silver and unassuming, so I probably get glazed over when they are visually scanning the highways for offenders.

Anyway, I keep mine in my trunk and have a couple of excuses to boot just in case.

My apologese for all those who have had tickets. Must suck.