LIONHEAD

Not for speeding but for no front license plates and tinted windows (35%). Looks like the tint has to come off. Anyone have similar experience and what did you have to do in court?

Thanks!

Mercedesfan

You are in Chicago? Well in the old days......

DWP

Does the ticket say that you absolutely have to appear in court, or just that you have to provide the court with evidence of correction? Can't speak to Illinois procedure, but my understanding of a California "fixit ticket" (never have gotten one) is that you make the corrections, then take your car to the station of the citing agency, have somebody sign off that the corrections are made, and mail the signed-off ticket to the court. Or, I suppose if you disagree with the legal need to make the corrections, you can have your day in court ....

LIONHEAD

Yup...required to go to court. Officer advised I need to take pictures that the tints are off and also a picture of the front plate is on the car to show to the judge and the violations will be dropped. I had tint and no front plates on my Vette for 6 years with no problem....O'Well the law's the law...must comply.

DWP

Interesting that you have to go to court, but can prove compliance with a photo, instead of having a cop eyeball your corrections on the car itself. Maybe the judge will make you swear under oath that you don't own a copy of Photoshop ...

IluvS500

grrr i hate that, the front plate will totally ruin the look of your e. Just take a pic with it on then take it back off, and drive the other e or the s to court lol

LIONHEAD

Only problem is the town that I was pulled over is the town that I work. Therefore, if I get a second violation will become a ticket. I see this cop on the side of the road many times in the morning just waiting to pull someone over and he doesn't stay in one location.

DWP

Once you install the license plate holder on the front bumper, there isn't much point in taking it off. Even if you do, and don't get nailed again by the local gendarmerie, you'll forever have those screw holes in your formerly-pristine bumper...

The M-B salesman told us that people go for years without a front plate (it doesn't seem to be a high priority for our local cops) but my wife is the daily driver of our car and she's too much of an upstanding citizen to drive as a license-plate scofflaw. Probably has to do with the fact that she's never been stopped, or so she claims. On it went, as soon as the plates arrived from the DMV ...

Nevada Jack

A real bummer Linonhead. What a shame to have to put a plate on that car!

Move to LasVegas...there are more cars here with expired plates from other states and without front plates by registered drivers than there are with the so called required front plate. (Watch some cop catch me on the way to the shopping center today probably...:-)

Not many solutions available.

LIONHEAD

This pic was taken 2 minutes before I was pulled over. As you can tell the tint isn't that dark but Illinois law is no tint whatsoever in the front.

Nevada Jack

I can't even tell you have a tint...geeze what a bummer!

What do they do with some of the cars that come with factory windows that are dark?

Jack

IluvS500

then just double stick tape it to the bumper take the picture show it to the judge and pay the fine, i think the cop was being an *** cause lionhead has a nicer car than he does.

LIONHEAD

But in this pic...it looks pretty dark.
I guess it's just how the sun hits the tint.

HELL ONA HARLEY

Gee isn't there any "real" criminals there in chi town....This cop only dreams of owning such a clean looking ride like yours... He probably wanted to take it out on you bro... Its obviously the citations were pretty chicken **** to begin with....

Mercedesfan

Unfortunately the police in Chicagoland go to extremes. They stopped a car a year or two ago for tinted windows and ended up shooting the poor kid who was a football player at Northwestern University.

EPower

I got ticketed this weekend too, but for speeding. CHP airplane got me (and about another 20 guys) doing 96 mph. First time in over 5 years...at least the good news...my Valentine 1 didn't fail me, just that plane. Be careful you California guys. They are out in full force. Got mine on the 395 south coming back to San Diego from Mammoth skiing.

IluvS500

omg why did they shoot him, i dont remember hearing that. Chicago cops are @$$es. The ones in my town are too.

SteveEvo25

Hey Lionhead can you please post a photo of your grill from stray ahead. Ideally showing the whole front of the car and the grill. Thanks

LIONHEAD

Here you go:

BMcD-E500

First you're killing me with the new rims and now you are making me paranoid about my tint and lack of front plate! You really experienced the ying and the yang in a short time! Maybe he was using laser and got pissed because he couldn't get a good read off your car - they usually aim for the front plate. The tint ticket was a drag-along. Gotta love the Barney Fifes out here in the 'burbs! Good luck with the ticket!

Bruce

LIONHEAD

The ironic thing was I wasn't speeding and driving normal with the flow of traffic (near Streets of Woodfield). I'm probably going to my buddy cop in Naperville and see what he suggest. What cracks me up is my buddy cop has limo tint on his Z06 and no front plates but he can get away with it.

SteveEvo25

Lionhead thanks for the front gill shot. It looks great . After reading all these replies I know that my reply probably won't be that popular but here it goes. I am a police officer in NY. I try not to be a hypocrite. I speed, therefore I don't stop anyone unless they are doing at least 20 MPH over the speed limit. I figure 20 MPH over and you should know that you were speeding and if you don't that's even worse. Even after that, if the person does not give me attitude ( very important !!! ) I may give a warning or look for something minor to give them a ticket for ( ie no seatbelt, brake light out, headlight out, etc. ). The reason for this is that in NY those minor offenses are equiptment violations and only carry a fine and "no points" on your driver's license.

I don't stop people for tint on their windows unless you are foolish enough to tint your front windshield . If you tint your front windshield you will get a ticket for sure unless is confined to the top 6" of the windshield. I will tell you why I feel some officers do. It is a safety reason for the police officer. Tinting ranges from very mild to some that we all have seen were you can not see inside the car. Put yourself in my place. I stop a car and as I'm getting ready to exit my vehicle I have no idea who the person is in the car. Almost always is a law abiding citizen, but there is a very small possibility that this person is wanted for a serious crime somewhere and has decided that no matter what he is not going back to jail. If that is the situation then I'm the only thing standing between him and freedom. If he has a weapon he may feel that using it is his best option. With that scenario, someone is going to loose and I would hope that due to our training it would be me. Now compound that concern with "dark" tinted windows. As I'm approaching the vehicle I can't see inside the vehicle and can be walking into an ambush. That's why we"light up" the vehicle with all our auxiliary lights hoping to be able to approach the vehicle undetected for a tactical advantage. Any way you get the point.

My suggestion to anyone who has tinted windows and gets pulled over is to pull over quickly as far to the right on the shoulder as possible. Immediately lower "all" your windows so that the officer feels a bit more secure because he can now see inside the car. When he asks you for your paperwork, be polite and apologetic. It may get you out of a ticket. I can almost guarantee you that you will not get by with a warning by having an attitude or being defiant.

Lastly understand that having your front plate in states that require it help us do our job by being able to identify your vehicle from the front or rear. If we are in the lookout for a vehicle in connection with a crime I can pull over and monitor traffic heading towards me by looking at the front plate. Also I have come across several individual that have taken the front plate off their legally registerd vehicle and put it on the rear of a vehicle that is not registered and drive around knowing that unless they get stop they will be ok. Lionhead I think that we can agree that the car is beautiful !!! It will still be beautiful even with a license plate on, but if you feel that strongly about it and don't mind taken chances find out if the tint and the missing front plate are only violations that do not accrue points on your license. In that case you would only be responsible for any monetary fines everytime you get stopped. By the way I own a 2002 S500 sport, 1993 STS and my girlfriend has a 2000 S500 and a 2000 Galant. I know that they would look better without a front plate but they all have front plates. Sorry for the long post but I thought it was a side not being shared and if I am banned I will accept my exile willingly.

Oslo

SteveEvo25

I really shouldn’t comment on this, since I’m a foreigner, and the laws are different. But there is one thing in your answer that actually surprised me. It seems that being polite and apologetic could help you off the hook. In our country it’s not up to a single police officer to take his own decisions when something outside the law has taken place. We should not be put in a position where we have to act different to a person because he/she happens to be a PO. Over here you can talk to a PO as he was just a “normal” person. We cannot be fined for starting an argument. It’s actually the PO that has to act polite, and if he doesn’t, he can get into trouble. It was a case in a Norwegian court where a man had called a PO a “dick….”. The PO went mad, and dragged the guy to court, but the PO lost the case totally. I think it's called the freedom of speach

(And we are also the only country in the world together with UK that have 100% unarmed PO’s. )

SteveEvo25

Oslo,

You misunderstood part of my answer. As a police officer I have discretion. I don't have discretions over crimes ( major violations ) in those cases I must make an arrest. For minor violations like traffic violations, I don't have to issue a summons everytime I notice a "minor" violation. I can merely stop the car and give a verbal warning or issue a summons it up to me. I'm saying that if you are polite and don't give a BS story I am more likely to give you a warning, but if you give me attitude and a hard time I am going to give you the summons. This should make sence.

You are correct in that I can not do anything more to you just because you act like an idiot. I would simply listen calmly let you vent and carry on. I would then go back to my car, issue the summons for the original infraction which I pulled you over for. Then I would return to your vehicle and very politely hand you your summons and explain to you how to answer the summons by mail or court.

Moral of the story your odds are much better if you are polite, but if you choose not to be polite don't be surprise when you get a summons or worse if the rest of your paperwork is not in order or up to date. I hope this explains it better.

LIONHEAD

SteveEvo25: I am always polite and courteous the few times I was pulled over. I have full respect for police officers as they have a hard job and they are trying to make a living like all of us. I have to in my line of work as I work closely with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). You don't want to mess with any of these Federal Agencies or they will come hard on you.

Of course there are some rotten apples in the bunch but you can say that about any industry. From all my posts, I have never bashed the officer. I also know it's a matter of safety to see fully the occupant driving the vehicle. In the town I was pulled over I can see why the officers can be hard nose as there are a lot of young punks street racing especially in the summer. In Illinois what I don't understand why the rear windows can be as dark as possible as the rear occupants can be as dangerous as the front occupants in concealing a deadly weapon. Looks like the tint will be coming off soon and the front plates installed.