I am wondering how I can check the law in my city? Just got a ticket in
NYC for plate cover and never heard of this before. I live in an adjacent
city and want to find out what the deal is. I'm driving my son's car and
asked him why he has it and he said he has no idea. I guess the dealer
must have put it on a couple of years ago. How's a body to know??
Any info would be appreciated.
I checked with the New York State Police for the answer to your question. Here is their response. It appears that the law is similar to Illinois':
"New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law section 402-b requires license
plates to be kept clean and in a condition to be easily readable, and
prohibits the covering of license plates with any plastic cover or other
artificial or synthetic material."
The intent is that the information on the plates is easily readable and no protective cover or coating is there assuming it may impede flash photography
Oddly, some NY Troopers interpret this as the plate frame may not touch the tops of the words NEW YORK even a tiny tiny bit. This is not the intent of the law which is only that the information is easily readable.
There should be a simple rule for frame covers not so up to the interpreation of individual troopers as it is common in Orange county for NY Troopers to ticket a plate where the frame touches the top of the words a tiny tiny bit. There is significant internal disagreement police dept to police dept is this should be the case and also significant disagreement within the NY troopers whether it is reasonable to ticket a plate for merely having the frame touch the top of the letters of NEW YORK