This. I have a couple friends who are cops. They think the tint law is pretty stupid.

Also, this is just a general point I was thinking about, and I know it will probably 99% never work as an argument in court or to change a law... BUT:

If anything darker than 70% in California is illegal....

then why is it legal for someone to drive while wearing sunglasses? Sunglass tint can range from 15% to 90% but there is no regulation while driving...

Yes, someone could respond with, "well you can easily take the sunglasses off"

Ok, well I can reply and say, "well you can easily roll your windows down."

To me the tint law is not very logical. But perhaps I am just trying to find another reason to disagree with it? Anyone, anyone?

Lol. I got pulled over going 40 in a 25 at 2am responding to a dispatcher IT problem and got stopped by the PD I worked for. That was the best pass I ever got--I literally heard the dispatcher yelling at the cop to let me go.
I don't work there anymore though. :P

And yea, some cops are cooler than others. In my experience CHP is full of uptight people. Even the local PD hated them.

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Thank you!!! lol

The biggest argument about tint is being able to see the driver and officer safety, etc. So sunglasses don't prevent police from seeing your hands.

Of course, people in the rear seats have never been the ones with the weapons, so that point is moot.

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CHP and law enforcement are haters of the FRS/BRZ and other Japanese import cars in general. If you drove a Vette and got busted for 90mph you'll get off due to driving a domestic. A buddy of mine got released by the cops a few times for running stop signs, pedestrians, etc. just because he drove a Vette. Cops are bias towards anything they want to drive.

I got clocked on the freeway being the last car following a group of commuter cars coming back from the gym. CHP's excuse was that EVERYONE was speeding but I decided to pull you over, mind you I just bought the car and didn't get my plates yet.

Where is Johnnie Cochran when you need him? It's racism I tell ya? LoL

:happy0180: I had to ask ;)

Because you can't conceal the drawing of a weapon with sunglasses.

(I'm just echoing their argument).

Ah, I see so its not so much about what the driver sees from the inside - out, but what a police officer can see from the outside - in. Too bad the law doesn't actually tell you why, it just says, "A person shall not drive any motor vehicle with...blah blah blah".

Regardless, I'm thinking the actual instances of that scenario happening are rare/statistical anomalies and the laws put in place were just knee-jerk reactions to isolated events.
Plus, why get rid of a law that you can enforce virtually any time and collect taxe--err, fines from, whenever you see fit?
This is California for christ sake; it isn't cool here forever, so of course people will get tint, either knowingly or unknowingly about the laws.
As a state with a huge deficit, this law is too convenient to let go.

To some extent, I think this is true - I've had a couple of cases where I probably should have been pulled over in my Cayman (including a pretty brisk acceleration to 75mph in a 55mph zone with a cop right behind me - I hadn't noticed him, and needed to get over a lane before the next light), and my tint is definitely not legal (I want to change it at some point, but the prior owner was in Texas, so it's pretty dark right now), but it hasn't proven to be nearly the cop magnet I thought it would be. My friend's WRX on the other hand...

Find a medical reason to have dark tint, then get a doctor to approve it. Laminate that paper, and always hand it to the cops. Mind as well ask for a handicap sticker too.

These cars attract attention, anything remotely unlawful to the right officer, good luck.

Or just don't illegally tint your windows, problem solved.

I think this one falls into the "gotta pay to play" category. Let's face it most of us tint our windows for the looks. As someone pointed out already you can easily use 70%+ tint legally if you wanted to just reduce heat in the cabin.

OP, don't think you mentioned what city you were in when you got pulled over. By any chance was it Fremont? :)

My Lexus IS had tinted windows, 35% all around (not front windshield). Tinted by a shop in Fremont. I drove it around for 2 years without hassle. Then I got an exhaust, new wheels and put a window sticker on the car. I went away on a business trip and my wife was driving my car in Fremont. She got pulled over coming home from Safeway (i.e. boring routine driving, not driving crazy/speeding/hooning) by Fremont PD. Cop wrote her up for a nasty fix-it ticket with some kind of add-on enhancement to her personal record. She had to remove the front window tint with a friend's help and get it signed off (don't remember the length of the deadline) while I was still out of town. So she went into the PD to get it signed off and pay the fine, and the cop who handled her paperwork said to her, "wow, the officer who gave you this ticket gave you a nasty one. If you are ever pulled over (personally, regardless of what car) with window tint again it will be an $800 fine." So my wife got hit with this additional penalty for driving my car. It sucks because she can never drive an illegally tinted car again, not without running the risk of an expensive fine. I have no idea what kind of screwed up "nastiness" the cop put on her record, or why, it doesn't make any sense to me. But there you go, the things we do to make our cars look good/get more performance/etc., welcome to the modded life.

Sure, I still run with tint on my car (but not my wife's car). I recognize that I run that risk of being caught, and am willing to face the consequences if I do. I minimize the risk by rolling down the windows or at least one of them, to help conceal the fact I have tinted windows when I am driving through a city or somewhere I think I am at risk of being seen/pulled over for it.