A License Plate Cover Is a License for the Police to Pull You Over
Walk through nearly any parking lot in the Lower Mainland and you will spot some vehicles with smoked plastic covers over the licence plates. Drivers assume these are a grey area at worst, a fashion choice at best. The moment you put a cover over your licence plate, you have handed the police a licence to pull you over, however. It gives them license to walk up to your window, and scrutinize everything else about your vehicle and the occupants.
In British Columbia, a plate cover is one of the easiest tickets a police officer can write. It is also one of the most effective excuses an officer has to start looking for something more serious.
What the regulation says
The rule is found in the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations, Division 3, section 3.03. The wording is unusually plain for a regulation. A number plate must be kept entirely unobstructed and free from dirt or foreign material, so that the numbers and letters on it may be plainly seen and read at all times, and so that the numbers and letters may be accurately photographed using a speed monitoring device or traffic light safety device prescribed under section 83.1 of the Act.
Two things to notice in that sentence. The first is “at all times,” which is not a soft standard. It does not say “usually” or “under reasonable conditions.” The second is the explicit reference to automated enforcement. The regulation was amended specifically so a plate cover that defeats a red-light camera or speed camera is captured by the same offence as one that defeats a human officer’s eyes.
The three kinds of cover that get tickets
Tinted covers. A smoke, grey, or blue tint over the plate reduces the reflectivity of the plate face and obscures the characters. These are an automatic ticket. There is no version of a tinted cover that complies with section 3.03.
Clear covers. This is the one that surprises people. Even a perfectly clear, undamaged plastic cover can result in a ticket, because plastic can reflect sunlight and camera flashes. At the wrong angle, an automated camera captures a sheet of glare instead of a plate number which is likely the intent of the person who installed it. The cover does not have to fool a human eye standing still in good light. It has to allow accurate photography by a speed monitoring or traffic light safety device, and a clear plastic cover often does not.
Dealership and novelty frames. The plastic frame your dealer screws around the plate when you drive off the lot may be justification to issue a ticket. If the frame’s border obstructs the province name or any of the characters on the plate, the plate is not entirely unobstructed within the meaning of the regulation.
There is also a related obligation tucked into section 4.04(2)(c) of the regulations, which requires that lamps and reflectors not be shielded, covered, or obscured by any part of the vehicle, load, dirt, or other material. The licence plate lamp at the rear of your car has to actually illuminate the plate at night. A tinted cover undermines that requirement on top of everything else.
The bigger problem
The ticket itself is one worry. The bigger problem is what the cover lets a police officer do.
Under section 73 of the Motor Vehicle Act, an officer can stop a vehicle to check for compliance with the Act and its regulations. A visible breach of section 3.03 supplies that basis instantly. The officer sees the cover, activates the lights, pulls the driver over. From the moment the officer walks up to the driver’s window, every observation is in play.
The smell of alcohol on a driver’s breath. An open beverage container in the cup holder or a bottle of wine rolling around on the floor. The smell of cannabis, or a baggie of cannabis sitting somewhere other than its original sealed container, both of which are offences under the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act. Window tint that crosses the line for section 7.05. A cracked windshield. A horn that does not work, which is its own offence under section 7.02 of the regulations. A taillight out, a missing mudguard, a child not properly fastened in a car seat.
None of those things would have been observed if the car had not been pulled over. The plate cover is what got the car pulled over.
For impaired driving in particular, the consequences are out of all proportion to a ten-dollar piece of plastic. An officer can demand a roadside breath sample on an approved screening device provided it’s a lawful stop and the demand is made immediately. A driver who fails or registers a warn faces an Immediate Roadside Prohibition, which in fails cases comes with a 90-day driving prohibition, a 30-day vehicle impound, and remedial program costs and licence reinstatement fees that run into the thousands of dollars.
And it all starts because you thought it was clever to install a licence plate cover in the hopes of avoiding a photo red light or radar ticket.
What to do
Take it off. There is no version of a plate cover that improves your legal position. BC license plates are metal stamped with reflective paint. They are designed to be read by humans, by intersection cameras, and by patrol cars equipped with automatic licence plate readers. Anything you put in front of it makes it harder to read in at least one of those conditions, which is the entire test in section 3.03.
If the plate is dirty, wash it. If the screws are rusted, replace them. If the dealership frame is hiding the words “British Columbia,” remove it and put up with the bare plate.
The old line that defence lawyers and traffic cops both repeat is the same one: do not break a small law while you are breaking a big one. A plate cover is the smallest law on the books, and the licence it hands to the police to look at everything else about your car is the most expensive thing you can leave on it.
If you have been pulled over by the police for any vehicle or driving infraction, call us right away. We are the original BC Driving Lawyers and we’ve defended nearly every offence you might imagine. Call now 604-608-1200.