San Francisco law enforcement officials are demanding that four online retailers remove license plate covers from their virtual shelves.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced Wednesday that his office has sent cease-and-desist letters to Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Etsy, which sell the covers on online marketplaces. This cover can be used by drivers to avoid being identified by law enforcement or bridge toll cameras.
“We sincerely hope that the four online retailers do the right thing and stop these products from appearing on their sites,” Chiu said at a press conference on Wednesday.
At the press conference, Chiu demonstrated three types of license plate covers to reporters. One plate was covered with a colored screen to make the numbers difficult to read, and the other was wrapped in a plastic cover with a completely different number. The most sophisticated of the three allowed the driver, via remote control, to quickly lower a pitch black screen over the plate, completely hiding it.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, who was also present at the news conference, said officers have reported seeing cover on the city’s streets. He said the covers are often used for illegal entertainment and other motor vehicle crimes, or to avoid red light cameras and bridge tolls.
“If we can detect a license plate, we often get a good result,” Scott said. “We find cars, we find people, we find property, we return people’s property, we prosecute people who commit these crimes. That’s why this is so important.”
The California Vehicle Code makes it illegal to “sell any product or device that conceals or is intended to obscure the reading or recognition of a license plate by visual or electronic means.” A news release from Chiu’s office said it is illegal to possess a license plate cover that hides a license plate number, and the fine for concealing a license plate number can be $250 per violation.
Ms Chiu said Ms Scott informed her of the issue and told her the cover could be purchased online. One of his reviews of his colored license plate cover, which is currently on sale on Amazon, is “Very good so far. [No] “Since the toll is added,” one person said, “It would be convenient if there was one. [had] I used to get too many red light tickets…but since I bought this, I don’t have to anymore!”
Chiu did not say what would happen if the four retailers ignored the cease and desist orders from his office.
The crackdown on license plate covers comes as city officials are compiling a list of potential locations for automatic speeding ticket cameras. Thanks to a new law approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month, the cameras will be installed in several of the state’s largest cities over the next few years, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. The San Francisco Department of Transportation expects to have 33 such cameras operating in the city by 2025.