Tinted auto windows a safey concern for Columbus police

Published on May 1, 2009

by Matthew Brady

If you want the attention of a police officer, you can call 911, or you can just drive around town in a car with heavily tinted windows. The latter method is pretty much guaranteed to catch an officer's eye, says Freeway Patrol Sgt. David Rice with the Columbus Police Division.

For Rice and his fellow officers, the issue is safety. "You walk up to the car, you can't see in, you can't see what the driver's doing," Rice says. "He can be sitting there with a loaded firearm pointed at you."

With summer fast approaching, shelter from the sun becomes a priority for Columbus drivers. The Ohio rules for car windows are simple: 50 percent visible light transmission, or VLT, on the two front windows; 70 percent on the windshield. Backseat and rear-windows can be darker.

Driving a car with illegal tint is a misdemeanor moving violation. Officers use a meter to gauge the light transmission and state law requires a sticker specifying the VLT.

The fine and court costs for car owners add up to about $120, something David Donahue of Columbus knows all too well. He got pulled over in February in his 2003 Nissan Altima, which he bought already tinted two years ago from Ricart Automotive.

Ricart, in the Penalty Box for another case, has offered to remove the tint, Donahue says. Lynne DeWitt, spokeswoman for Ricart, confirmed they would remove the tint for free, but said they do not check the tint on their cars.

It's against the law in Ohio to sell a car with illegal tint or to install it. Enforcement, however, has been spotty. Since January 2006, the Franklin County Municipal Court has processed 5,465 tint tickets. Of the more than 4,100 that specified the type of tint infraction, only 80 cited installation of tint and none cited selling a car with illegal tint.

"You could cite them for it even though I'm not sure it's a good law enforcement tactic," says Jeff Furbee, legal adviser to the police department for the city attorney's office, regarding the installation and selling provisions of the law. "In theory, it's enforceable."

Rice said he doesn't know of anyone enforcing the provision.

Regarding the 80 people cited in three years, Rice said he would need to know the circumstances.

"An officer showing up at a shop and issuing a citation to the shop owner, I just don't see that happening," he says. "It just doesn't fall under anyone's priority."

Jeff Banks, owner of Professional Eclipse, says enforcement would put him out of business. He says until Angie's List Magazine called, no one's ever told him it was against the law to install it. But he tells his customers if what they want would push their windows over the limit and he'll keep installing it until someone official tells him to stop. "I try to discourage the real dark tint," says Banks, who's been tinting for 23 years. "Most people go one shade darker [than legal]."

He's had a few angry customers return with tickets in hand. "I stamp on their receipt 'window tint darker than legal' and they have to sign it so that squashes that," he says. "They know for sure it's not legal."