Yesterday, a Fairfax County cop who was standing at one of the toll booths on the Dulles Toll Road told me to pull over after I thew my change into the bin.

Here's how the conversation went:

Cop: I pulled you over because you don't have a front license tag showing.

Me: I know, because I just got the car out of the body shop and they didn't screw the plate holder back into the bumper.

Cop: Okay. Roll up your window a little bit. Is this after-market tint?

Me: Yes it is sir.

Cop: How dark is it?

Me: Uh, I think it's either 35 or 50%.

Cop: Alright, be right back.

The cop gets his tint reading gadget.

Cop: Roll your window back up a little bit. Eh, it reads 33%, a little below, but I won't get you for that. But I will have to write you a warning for not having the front license tag.

Me: Okay, sir.

I thought the tint law in VA was that the front windows have to be 50% or higher while the back windows can be 35% or higher. Was I mistaken, or did I get lucky with this cop forgetting what the law really is?

The cop was cool, just surprised me that he'd be standing right at the booth watching people drive through. Had I seen him prior, I would've opened up the sunroof, put my front plate in the dash and hope for the best.

 

Same thing happened to me on the toll road a couple years back. Cop said the same thing to me.

As for the tint laws, I think they are the same (50% on front).

 

Those guys are not there to see if you have a front license plate or even tint... They are there to make sure your tags haven't expired. I see them quite often by the toll booths just picking cars over. Once they get you over I bet they find a bunch of other things wrong with your car. It just so happened that you didn't even have a front tag at all so they got you.

 

I think it can be 35% all around except no windshield, unless you call a 4" strip at top a windshield tint.

 

what color is your car? sometimes tint looks darker on certain color vehicles...

 

Code of Virginia - http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp...+cod+46.2-1052

46.2-1052 - Tinting films, signs, decals, and stickers on windshields, etc.; penalties.

Basically:
C.1. - Rear 35%
C.2. - Front 50%
E. - No windshield film except to replace the "sunshield" put in place by the manufacturer at the top...

Note: Paragraph D. "...Such measurements made by law-enforcement officers shall be given a tolerance of minus seven percentage points."

So does that mean that it could even read 28% and you'd still be legal?

--cSc

 

Whew, I did get lucky then. Had he remembered it was 50% for the front, no way would he have let that go seeing he gave me a warning for no front plate.

From what I'm from guessing by reading other sites, the "tolerance of minus seven percentage points" has to do with the "net" measurement. Meaning, if you get after-market tint at 35%, but the manufacturer tint is 7%, that would put the "net" measurement at 28%. I can't remember the link, but the chart showed that VA goes by "net" measurement.