SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Police in New Jersey write about 100,000 tickets a year for a minor infraction that some lawmakers want to do away with. A bill moving through Trenton would prevent police from writing someone a ticket because of a frame around their license plate.
Many a license plate has a frame around it — often from the dealership where the car was bought. Imagine driving that new car off the lot and, moments later, being pulled over because that plastic frame blocks part of the plate — not the alphanumeric registration identifier, but the words “New Jersey” or “Garden State.”
“These type of summons are unnecessary,” Assemblyman Ron Dancer said. “They carry fines. They carry court costs, and we need to save time and money.”
Dancer says there is no crime here. There is no safety issue. And oftentimes drivers feel tickets like this are a money grab. His bill would prohibit police from stopping someone for the license plate frame alone.
He says it also leads to more traffic stops and tense moments between civilians and police officers that simply don’t need to happen. “And we don’t need issues that divisive, issues that are causing acrimony with law enforcement,” he said.
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Dancer says this is something his constituents have been complaining about.
“They want to see this end. Let the police do the major crime investigations, not something that is so minor,” he said. “We don’t need to be issuing 100,000 summons a year on an issue like this.”
He says the bill has cleared a Senate committee, and it will be debated in the General Assembly next. He says he thinks this could end up on the governor’s desk for a signature by the end of June.