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Weird but true: how a license plate frame can get you arrested!
Traffic stops turn into investigative searches every day:
Police love routine traffic stops. They can pull you over for a minor infraction, ask seemingly innocuous questions, and if you don't answer or behave a certain way, now you're under investigation. Every day, police find guns and drugs in the course of these stops, and every occupant can be on the hook for something inside the car. What's one minor traffic violation that can turn into an investigatory stop? An obscured license plate.
You might think this is just having a sticker over some numbers or damaged plates but the law actually includes more than that, including license plate covers:
-Vehicle and Traffic Law Chapter 17, Title 4, Article 14, Section 402:
402 (1)(b)(ii-a) Number plates shall not be covered by glass or any plastic material. Obviously you might picture a smoky tinted plate cover but, by this statute, clear covers are illegal.
402 (1)(b)(iii) "The view of such number plates shall not be obstructed by any part of the vehicle or by anything carried thereon."
The courts have ruled that a plate frame which even partly obscures any of the words on a license plate frame are illegal. Go check yours, even many dealership plates infringe on the law! For example:
"Anything carried thereon" can include many bike racks, especially if you have a bicycle on it. And because this statute includes both driving and parking on public roads, you could find an orange envelope just for having a bike rack, as many have.
"Read the manual" is quite a challenge in New York!
