Jan. 1 first not only brought in a new year, it also brought frustration for many Arizona drivers. I refer to the 2006 law prohibiting obstructing license plate frames that went into effect this year.
As background, the Arizona Legislature passed a law in 2006 prohibiting the use of license plate frames if the frame obstructed the word “Arizona” at the top of the plate. The enforcement of the law was deferred until Jan. 1, 2009.
The purported reason behind the regulation is to aid law enforcement in the routine check of license plates.
While I don’t disagree with the reason for the law, I disagree with the assumption that not having the word “Arizona” at the top of the plate means that a plate is unrecognizable. An Arizona law-enforcement officer should be able to identify an Arizona license-plate design.
The standard plate is unique — and even if the design in question is confusing, the phrase “Grand Canyon State” should give it away. If our police officers don’t know our state motto, then we have bigger problems.
Even though there are 43 license-plate designs, many are rarely used (such as the horseless-carriage option), and others are pretty obvious, like the university plates. I’m pretty sure North Carolina doesn’t offer an ASU plate.
This leaves precious few things that officers would actually be confused about. So perhaps we should just require our officers to know the plate designs.
This is even more important because out-of-state plates are not included because of jurisdiction issues. With the large number of nonresident students and winter visitors the number of non-Arizona license plates in traffic dramatically increases.
Aside from that, the law is written subjectively. According to the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department Web site, the law states that the word “Arizona” must be “clearly legible,” yet leaves the interpretation of that guideline up to individual officers.
One officer may find your plate to be readable, but you are still at risk for a ticket from another officer. If you never know what constitutes “clearly legible,” how can you know if you are being compliant?
I searched for more than an hour and never found an objective standard of “clearly legible.” Why should I need to take off a frame “just to be safe” if it is actually fine in the first place? I paid for my frame last May when I graduated, yet it was never mentioned that I could possibly need to remove it six months later.
The purposes for the law are admirable, but the problems with the law impede its actual value.
If the state had advertised in 2006 that this new law had been passed, there would be far fewer annoyed drivers now because they would not have purchased noncompliant frames in the interim.
This would also have allowed those with noncompliant frames to purchase new frames that followed the restrictions.
In the end, this law just leaves us with naked license plates, a bunch of frames gathering dust in boxes and angry alumni who recently bought now-illegal frames from their alma mater.
Janne is a criminology and criminal justice graduate student. Let her know your thoughts on the law at janne.gaub@asu.edu.
