# It Is Against the Law to Coat Your License Plate to Evade Traffic Cameras - Lehto's Law Ep. 4.18
# Steve Lehto — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1mn-ao3wUg

hello and welcome once again to Latos
law I'm Steve leg to turn it law in
state of Michigan I'm practicing on over
26 years in the fields of consumer
protection and lemon law laughter about
the several places Road and track calm
and I've written a few books as well
today we're talking about it is against
the law to coat your license plate to
evade a traffic camera it's against the
law to coat your license plate to evade
traffic cameras what we're talking about
here is modern technology run amuck you
know that states are now often
implementing these devices that sit at
intersections and if somebody runs a red
light bright flash goes off and a
high-definition camera photographs the
back of the car they then run the
license plate and they mail that lucky
driver a ticket saying your car ran a
red light pay this ticket it's often an
insane amount of money and many people
are disturbed by these big brother-ish
things because the fact that these
machines just sit up there and write
tickets all day long and it's not just
red-light cameras I've seen those I've
also seen speeding cameras where they
set up a speed trap someplace and a
device that sort and records your speed
as you go by and if you go by too fast
it then does the same thing photographs
it back your car gets a copy your
license plate they run it through the
system they mail you a ticket
congratulations you know it's several
hundred dollars for driving too fast
past this machine so these traffic
cameras are out there now not all states
use them okay but some states do and
many states are using them more and more
as a way to generate revenue and of
course this is annoys everybody no one
likes tickets everyone likes to drive
fast and some of us even like to run
through red lights I'm just joking I
would never encourage that but the point
is that these machines are out there so
the first thing that happens people say
well you know how fair is this you know
I'm driving along and a device a machine
a thing says I ran a red light can I
fight this and there's you know I
remember when traffic cameras first came
out and there's always discussions about
you know is this a violation of your due
process who's the witness who's
testifying against you on a
constitutional issue here you know and
and so people have been fighting these
and arguing about these but someone came
along with the ideas of a wait a second
what if the machine the device the
camera couldn't actually record what was
on my license plate for some reason and
I've heard ads for this I mean I've even
heard the guys who invented
on a talk show and what they did is they
came up with a spray okay it's a can of
aerosol spray and you spray it on your
license plate and it doesn't appear to
affect the appearance of the license
plate okay and in fact what they say is
it's it's a it's a clear coating that
only becomes apparent when it's a really
really bright flash like say a camera
flash and they claim that the camera
flash will then cause this coating to
somehow reflect the light weirdly so
that in the photograph of the license
plate the the camera will not be able to
get the data from the license plate
it'll be obscured it'll be it'll be
somehow blurred by this bright flash
reflection off of this coating and I
remember hearing ads in the radio for
these guys saying that they'll sell you
this stuff and if you get a ticket
they'd even pay your ticket for you they
were so convinced this stuff was good
we'll talk about that in a second but
what really caused me to think about
this story today was I was reading the
Daily Mail as I often do I had to find
out what craziness is going on in the
world and I came across the story about
Gordon Ramsay now I like Gordon Ramsay I
watch many of his shows I'd like to see
him yell at people occasionally he makes
people cry but Gordon Ramsay was doing
an interview in England and he he this
he's confessed to avoiding speed camera
fines in the US by wrapping saran wrap
around his Ferraris license plate now I
think he's joking
but the articles have been reprinted and
passed along through different news
organizations as if he's telling the
truth
and what he's saying is correct and you
have to understand I think he's joking
but if he's not ok you have to
understand what he's saying here is not
correct it says Ramsay is renowned for
his love of speed and has sometimes been
putting a scene putting vehicles through
their paces on motorways around Los
Angeles in the early hours of the
morning and Ramsey claims that the
police won't pull him over because of
the saran wrap around his license plate
now first of all it makes no sense
because the saran wrap would be
something to prevent the
cameras from voter graphing the license
plate but obviously if a police car is
driving along next to him and he's
speeding they're not gonna say gee we
can't pull him over he's got strippers
license plate okay that's not gonna
prevent a cop from pulling you over but
Gordon Ramsay told the mirror that he
seldom gets tickets because the cling
film on his license plate reflects speed
camera flashes and stops his high-speed
cars from being identified okay the
father of four
51 years old newspapers he told the
paper I Drive my cars at night when no
one can see me well okay you can see at
night just not as well but he goes I'll
take it out at 2:30 in the morning on
the freeway and I'll blast on the
motorway and no police catch me and no
cameras because I wrapped my number
plates with cling film as your friend of
saran wrap it's a great thing for a chef
when they get your own Ferrari just wrap
it with cling film he said again I think
he might be joking but he says it won't
photograph it reflects brilliant it's a
great tip I'm trying to help you so get
rolls of cling film when you get your
Ferrari and wrap the front so you won't
get caught speeding but like I said I
think he's joking but I think a lot of
people unfortunately don't get the joke
or if he's not joking and this is crazy
but the article points out that the
speed limit on most of us handles
freeways of 65 miles per hour Ramsey's
Ferrari California T can do almost three
times that speed and he says else when
the article that he owns eight Ferraris
in Britain as well and he said that he
feels uncomfortable about driving to
work in his 160 thousand pound Italian
supercar one hundred sixty thousand
pounds is not the weight that's the cost
in England
he's also rejected criticism that he is
a wealthy show-off he says I get a lot
of criticism for being blunt and
brutally honest it's because I have
never forgotten this day where I've come
from and how hard I've worked and you
know that's the thing you know Gordon
Ramsay's blunt
I think he's joking but let's let's
suppose you could wrap your license
plate in
I ran ramp and or some other generic
cling film and that would somehow keep a
traffic camera from photographing your
license plate accurately okay let's
assume that that's a possibility I don't
know if it is or not or let's just talk
about that spray that they sell that
they say you can spray your license
plate with this stuff and it's it's not
visible to the naked eye but it causes
when the flash goes off and causes the
flash to obscure the license plate in
such a way that it can't be read the
question is is this legal or not and the
funny thing is of course it is
completely illegal surprise surprise and
that was the funny thing as I heard
these guys on the radio talking about
this invention of there is the spray
that you put in the license plates and
the guy was saying you know what we're
doing is is so certain to work that if
you buy our product and you get a
license you get a ticket from when he's
you know license plate reading cameras
will pay the ticket for you and someone
called and said yeah but is what you're
doing legal is it legal and they said oh
yeah absolutely it's legal no these guys
aren't attorneys they're you know guys
pitching
snake well I mean license plate spray
and they're you know they're saying no
it's perfectly legal and so I'm an
attorney when someone tells me
something's perfectly legal I think
about and go home I wonder is a law
against that it turns out there is so as
I pointed out previously the law books
behind me the blue ones are Michigan
laws and I'm talking about Michigan and
specific but I glanced at a couple other
states and it appears that most states
have got similar laws what I'm about to
tell you
and if wherever you are you want to
check this type in your own state and
then motor vehicle code and then license
plates I'm gonna get something will pop
up so you know if you're in Nevada the
Nevada license plate code and you'll
probably find this but I'm looking at
the Michigan Motor Vehicle Code with
respect to to license plates its MCL two
fifty seven point two two five and I've
mentioned before for the two attorneys
in the audience that Michigan's Motor
Vehicle Code is MCL two fifty seven and
then this whole section
the eleven laws at 1401 the motor
vehicle stores prepare acts at 1301 and
so on but it's a whole section in there
about what constitutes an automobile
versus a motorcycle what laws you know
about everything so there's a section on
there on just simply addressing lace
plates as you might imagine msel to 57.2
to five it says that a license plate
issued for a vehicle they keep referring
to it as a registration plate I'm gonna
called a license plate that's what we
caught issued for a vehicle shall be
attached to the rear of the vehicle a
registration plate issued for a truck or
a truck tractor or road tractor should
be attached to the front of the vehicle
so typical passenger cars the license
plates gotta be on the back of the
vehicle okay and it's kind of funny that
they have to spell this stuff out but as
you can imagine if they didn't spell the
stuff up people would just do whatever
they wanted so for instance a
registration plate shall at all times be
securely fastened in a horizontal
position to the vehicle so as to prevent
the plate from swinging okay you can't
have a loose plate back there and it's
got to be horizontal it's kind of funny
I'd never thought about this but if they
had said that you get some hipsters who
turn their plate sideways cuz it's cool
kinda like how you hold your guns
sideways when you're on it you know on a
TV show but you know it's cool man can I
hold my gun sideways sure knock yourself
out well you put your license plate
sideways no you can't the law says
specifically you cannot put your license
plate sideways the license plate has
also got to be clearly visible and then
the plate shall be maintained free from
foreign materials that obscure or
partially obscure the registration
information and a clearly legible
condition okay and it's interesting
about this because that was probably
originally thought of just simply as
keeping your license plate clean okay
we've all seen it you live up the
country you're driving down the road out
the middle of nowhere and some of the
guy goes by and his license plate is
either covered with muck or it's so
rusted and beat-up that it's been like
sandblasted by the passing gravel on the
road and the license place no longer
legible technically speaking that's
against the law but here's the part that
matters okay the plate shall be
maintained free from foreign materials
obscure or partially obscure the
registration information free from
foreign materials so the question is
when you wrap your license plate in
saran wrap when you pull a Ramsey on
your license plate is it free from
foreign material no it's not it's it's
it's got foreign material that's what
saran wrap is it's it's it's not a piece
of the license plate that means it's
foreign
it's material it's foreign material okay
uh and and so the question also then
becomes well what about the spray you
know it spray the aerosol on the on the
plate the argument that the guys are
making when I heard them talking about
this was they said well you can still
see the plate therefore what we're doing
is not illegal but the law says free
from foreign materials that obscure or
partially obscure the registration
information so if the stuff you're
spraying on the license plate even
partially obscures the information then
it's violating the law and you'd say
well I spray it I look at it looks fine
to me except for in a bright flash goes
off now you can't see it
what's obscuring it is the spray so I'm
pretty certain that most judges look at
this Gogi yeah sprayed a foreign
material on the license plate and the
only reason you did that it wasn't to
preserve the license plate it wasn't
like you're putting it there and saying
isn't protecting the plate you're
putting it there specifically to obscure
the information from a traffic camera
okay so that is against the law no
question
so when Gordon Ramsay says that he does
this he doesn't necessarily address it
as to whether it's legal or not he
simply addresses whether it works or not
and that's a big difference the man's a
chef okay it's not an attorney I would
never dare to cook for him so I wouldn't
take legal advice from him but you know
you sticked your specialties but he
doesn't say it's legal or illegal he's
just simply says it works okay and I
question that whether you wrap the front
end of your Ferrari and saran wrap it's
gonna keep a police office from pulling
you over for speeding at 2:30 in the
morning in Los Angeles but another story
altogether
but the bigger question as many people
ask this - let me ask a questions even
if I'm in a state with traffic cameras
and the state has a law that says I
cannot put a foreign material on the
license plate if I spray the license
plate with this stuff and then toss the
can away can they tell I did that and I
guess the answer probably is no I mean
my understanding is that the stuff is
not detectable that you would spray it
you can't see it
okay so you say okay steep so I spray
the stuff
my license plate I go through a red
light camera intersection and I blow the
red light light goes off and I've seen
the light go off by the way in broad
daylight it's like a it's like a
lightning strike it's it's amazing how
bright these lights are I didn't trigger
it
I saw it happen somebody else but so you
spray your license plate with this stuff
okay even though it's illegal and then
you drive through and and the camera
goes off and and it turns out that it's
correct the devices click basically
cannot be read okay if the license plate
cannot be interpreted and you're gone
and the only evidence they have of you
doing this is the one blurry photograph
of your license plate then they can't
contact you correct and the answer that
of course is in that case they can't so
here's the thing from a practical
viewpoint the license plates pray could
work I don't know if it works I've never
tried it I've never seen this stuff I
mean I've heard about it read about it
never actually hold a can of it my hands
I don't know I've never tried it could
it work and the answer is well if if in
fact it does what they claim it does it
could work meaning that you could go
through that or you could do a speed you
know it's a speed camera and the
photograph might not be legible and they
get an illegible photograph and they
look at go we can't figure out who this
is then yeah you might get away with it
okay
so again I'm not sure about the saran
wrap on the license plate or the saran
wrap or on the front of the car for
whatever reason but could these things
work in theory yes they could work in
theory but see I'm not an optical
engineer here I'm not here to explain to
you the optics or whether or not this
works or how it works or why it works
people ask me questions is it legal it's
caso so question number one is it legal
and the answer of course is no it would
not be legal you'd be violating at least
in Michigan MCL two fifty seven to
twenty five subparagraph 2 okay because
you'd be putting a foreign material on
your license plate which would obscure
it or partially obscure it so you'd be
breaking the law and by the way a person
who violates this section is responsible
for a civil infraction it's a ticket
it's not a crime okay no one's going to
jail because you sprayed your license
plate so some people I know right now
going I'll Steve wait a second you're
telling me it's illegal but it ain't
that illegal and the odds are getting
caught are very very slim and even if I
do get caught it's just a civil
infraction but if I have this stuff and
it works I won't get caught well you
know as an attorney I can only advise
you on the law that's I'm telling you
that is it legal yes or no no it's not
legal would it you know will it work I'm
not sure could it work yes it could work
okay so in short answer is it against
the law I see it as and the state of
Michigan does as well and I think most
other states do too the question simply
is whether they would catch you on film
and whether they catch in real life and
actually ticket you for this and that's
the big question so as for the saran
wrap I can't speak to that maybe we can
do some experiments but I don't think it
works one way or the other I'd love to
see Gordon Ramsay's Ferrari go by with
saran wrap around either the front end
of it or the license plate it's hard to
imagine doing that for a car that cost
six figures but as for the spray it is
against the law will you get caught
don't know is it really bad if you get
caught yeah not that bad but it's you
know it's a civil infraction so again
I'm a lawyer
it is against the law to cut your
license plate to evade traffic cameras
questions your comments is I'll shoot my
way late does a lot of calm le h tus la
w calm I'm on Twitter at Steve let to
ste vele H do and it shows on iTunes
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for listening bye bye