Iowa Supreme Court: License plates must show county names, justices say

Iowa drivers who like to personalize the covers holding their license plates may want to pay attention to a Friday Iowa Supreme Court ruling.

Justices decided police can make traffic stops solely because of obscured license plates.

Law enforcement officers say the rule has been the law in Iowa for years. Iowa code says nothing can hide the letters, numbers or registration stickers on license plates. That applies even if the only thing covered up is the name of the county at the bottom of the plate.

Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said officers make more plate-related traffic stops because they either can't see the registration sticker or think the plate is too dirty to be visible.

But he said officers long have been able to write tickets for covered county names.

'Whether they would or not remains to be seen. But the reality is the code is clear and the Iowa Supreme Court has verified it. If you cover letters or numbers on a plate, you're in violation of the law,” Gardner said.

Many times, it's a sports frame with a team name that obscures part of the license plate.

At auto parts stores, some frames come with warnings on back to check before installing to make sure the style doesn't conflict with state law.

Several drivers interviewed Friday in downtown Cedar Rapids said they were skeptical and confused about the high court ruling.

'I've never heard of anything like that,” driver Kenneth Brown said.

Driver Tonia Smith added, 'it seems a little obscure. But hey, my license plate I believe has the county name covered. So maybe I need to take a look at it.”

The Iowa Supreme Court got involved because of a Davenport case, State of Iowa v. Craig E. Harrison.

Davenport police suspected Harrison was carrying drugs in his car and used the obscured license plate law to make a traffic stop. A search then turned up the drugs. Harrison's lawyer sought to get the conviction thrown out because the only reason for the stop was a plate violation.

Justices ruled even if there were no other probable cause to stop Harrison's vehicle, police could make a traffic stop for that violation alone.

Drivers pulled over for an obscured plate might get a warning, but a $20 ticket is possibile. With court costs, that adds up to a $92 violation.

Comments: (319) 368-8611; dave.franzman@sourcemedia.net