NON-COMPLIANCE WITH MOTOR vehicle rules and regulations is not a new phenomenon. In early 1983 I worked as a Boston parking clerk, at a time when the Commonwealth’s Registry of Motor Vehicles began blocking driver’s license and vehicle registration renewals if there were unpaid violation tickets.

On August 11, 1983, the Boston Globe reported that in just four months, Boston collected more than $1 million in unpaid tickets from renewals blocked by the Registry.

Despite these enforcement measures, some drivers believed they had protection from parking tickets. One man who came to my counter was enraged to get a non-renewal notice because he said that his license plate, which a family member who worked for the Registry obtained for him, “protected” him from tickets.

His plate had the letter “O” and the number “zero” in opposite spots where such characters would normally appear —  as a fictional example, think “BOS 909” with a “zero” in the middle of “BOS” and the letter “O” between the nines. I keyed his plate number into my computer, except I reversed the letter “O” and the number “zero” so that it was entered in the standard format. Pages of unpaid parking tickets that could not be linked to a valid automobile registration then spewed out.

In that particular instance, a single valid ticket finally (albeit accidentally) matched its correct registration. In late 2005 the Registry redesigned the letter “O” to appear more box-shaped, as previous plates did not distinguish the letter from the numeral, which, according to a city of Boston training advisory, “has been an ongoing concern for law enforcement.” This directive, however, only applied to new and replacement license plates, and none of the tags issued in the decades before. 

Another scofflaw was literally closer to home, when I spotted a car parked on a street with the same Kansas license plate number that was on the car I owned when I was in high school, with a fake expiration sticker affixed. A former tenant in my three-family home swiped the plate from the basement laundry room, where it had hung as a souvenir. At the time I couldn’t believe that anyone would do something so illegal.

Today in Massachusetts, there appears to be a greatly expanding trend (a trend I observe happening elsewhere in the country). Look around you as you drive – or walk – and you will notice:

  • License plates with filters ranging from light to very dark. Some filters are so dark that it is impossible to see what state issued the license plate, particularly at highway speeds. Even some clear filters advertised on the internet are designed to be reflective to avoid camera detection.
  • License plate frames that completely obscure the state’s name. Some of these frames promote dealerships and sports teams. Others I have witnessed were studded with tiny mirrors or rhinestones that are blinding to look at. I have also noticed “DYI” license plate camouflage. Last fall, while driving back from Rhode Island with my nephew’s family, many pickups had metal bars affixed to the top of license plates that blocked out the Massachusetts and Rhode Island state names.
  • Faded license plates. Massachusetts began rolling out its “Spirit of America” pair of license plates in 1987, but allowed owners to keep their single rear-mounted green lettered & numbered plates – even though many of those plates duplicated numbers with other Registry-issued tags. Many (if not most) of these older “green” plates are now illegible, as are a large number of the “current” plate series.

There appears to be lax or no enforcement of these violations, and in my observation they are proliferating. Regarding tinted license plate covers, one reason might be a court case from a decade ago in which the defendant was pulled over in his car for having a tinted license plate cover. The District Court questioned how diminished the legibility of the license plate must be for the statute to apply. The defendant won his case at the District Court and the subsequent appeal by the Commonwealth.

Beyond a needed change to the statute to specifically ban all license plate covers and filters, it would seem that there would be no question of enforcement of current regulations for filters which create a blackout or near-blackout of license plates.

It should also be an easy citation to Massachusetts vehicles who are failing to display front license plates when required, and to all vehicles regardless of state registration, who completely block out their state’s name on their plates.

The same is true for the many front license plates for Massachusetts vehicles replaced with commemorative tags promoting sports teams, politicians, and religious viewpoints. An increasing number of Tesla automobiles and foreign imports are also not sporting the required front plates, though some of the latter might be more of an aesthetic choice vs. an anti-government one.

My primary concern, beyond the public safety issues involved, is that such blatant nose-thumbing at laws that were once (or mostly) honored is indicative of the deeper issues in our society. If my candidate doesn’t win an election, I don’t have to accept it; or … I can pretend to take this exit off the highway during heavy summer traffic and then cut back in, since “everyone else” is doing it too; … or, I can park in this EV charging spot directly in front of the market since I have a Tesla – even when I don’t plug in.

While there have always been, and always will be, people who try to “game” the system, the proliferation of those who openly violate laws (and common courtesy) should be a concern to those of us who want to live in a civil society, and not pick up the tab for others.

For example, states that moved to electronic toll collection are losing millions of dollars. WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, reported this past April 13 that:

  • The Newport Pell Bridge lost $252,000 in unpaid tolls in 2022.
  • This past January alone, Massachusetts could not collect on 20,000 toll transactions.
  • New York’s MTA estimates that it loses $50 million annually from drivers intentionally dodging tolls, about half of the total amount uncollected each year.

These amounts will surely go up when more people see an increased number of vehicles that violate license plate laws. If you can’t beat them, join them?

It is time to issue new license plates for all and eliminate the duplication of plate numbers. Let’s be creative, too. Am I the only one who has noticed that many states distribute nice-looking standard tags? My late mother, who was very frugal and a lifelong registered Republican, enjoyed getting new Kansas license plates every few years since she thought that they made her older car, which she kept clean and in good condition, look more attractive.

We must explicitly ban license plate covers and filters, so that there is no need to waste a police officer’s time in court debating a filter’s darkening percentage and if it exceeds an “obscurity” threshold. We must ban license plate frames that hide the issuing state’s name and enforce this law equally for Massachusetts and out-of-state vehicles.

In 1903, Massachusetts was the first US state to issue license plates. Now, 120 years later, can’t the Commonwealth do better? The results of an effort to improve our laws and enforce them will be easy to see. We only need to look, as we walk and drive.

Paul Rehme is a Boston resident and former owner of the South End’s We Think The World of You bookstore.