Years ago, I was pulled over by police because a wet leaf was stuck on my licence plate. This pic was taken last week near Brantford. Daily, I would say 1/10 plates are illegible. Why is this law not being enforced?

  • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    I feel like this is a broken window thing: cops don’t enforce speed limits, so drivers feel entitled to hide their license plates from speed cameras.

    Why don’t cops enforce driving laws? I would love to know why. I have a bunch of theories based on my biases, but I don’t have anything useful to say.

    • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 days ago

      Oh they enforce speed limits, but only in places where they’re going to get lots of hits in short time to show how much work they do.

      Ticketing for unsafe vehicles eg lighting, license plates, erratic driving, use of signals etc. is all too much work. Pretty much anywhere you go.

      • Mpatch@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        How is a license plate un safe?

        Lighting, okay bulbs burn. Some times it’s 2 minutes into an hour long drive. You gona write some one a ticket from that? People hate cops enough as it is.

        Use of signals? Okay the one time in 1000 where your finger didn’t quite catch the lever.

        Erratic driving. Is enforced. Just because you see some one driving like a fuck doesn’t mean there is a convient cop each time that saw it too.

        • Moose Winooski@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          For starters, I’d like to know the plate number of the black ram when he tries to murder me for minding my own business in bike lane.

          • Mpatch@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Wow. Well, unfortunately for you it won’t help. You can give the cops all the information about the vehicle you want. Unless they physically drag the driver out of the ram, they “can’t prove who the driver is” and nothing will come of it.

        • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Less accountability if the lisence plate is illegible. They may not even have registration or insurance if they are intentionally obscuring their plate.

          Failing to signal is a common problem, many cops will use that as a good reason to initiate a traffic stop and determine soberity. Drive behind a BMW for 10 minutes and you’ll realize certain drivers use it only 1/1000, rather than they sometimes forget.

          For bulbs most cops are reasonable and will write you a dated warning, if you get pulled over again 2 weeks later with the same burnt out bulb, then you’re likely to get a ticket.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caOP
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      4 days ago

      so at what point will a violent incident occur against a cop, and they couldn’t ID the car because the plate was illegible? Why is Ontario the only region in North America that allows this? Is this a legal issue over those 3M licence plates that were illegible?

      • dom@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        And why is only when its violence against a cop where they would actually start caring? Violence against “civilians” isnt taken with that level of seriousness.

  • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    My guess would be that he simply hasn’t been noticed by a traffic cop yet.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caOP
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      4 days ago

      But how many illegible plates do you see every day? Incredibly common now. This is a post 2018 thing. Now with no licence renewal stickers and no plates, how many vehicles are driving around with DUI suspensions and lack of licence or insurance?

      OPP used to share this data, but no more. That ended when the government ended licence renewal stickers, so the effect of that is being hidden from taxpayers. The best I could find was an old estimate of 1 in 50 vehicles are uninsured. It’s likely much higher.