Plate flippers are common at car shows, because nothing makes the front end of a car look worse than a license plate. Some gearheads put ‘phony’ plates on, like a reproduction Japanese plate on a JDM car. Others use a plate flipper to hide their real plate for personal privacy. Some hot rodders, bikers and street racers use devices with springs, hinges, or cables to hide their plates from view for nefarious purposes. Any of these gadget could be called a license plate flipper, and they’re nothing new.
Yet as governments have turned more and more to cash grabs like red light cameras, automatic speed cameras, and highways tolls to pick motorists’ pockets, suddenly the plate flipper is a serious problem. Manufacturers in China are making motorized plate flippers for $50 that car be attached to with simple hand tools. Governments are convinced they’re losing ‘potential revenue’ to plate flippers. Just owning the device is being criminalized.
Every state and province has laws against obscuring or altering a vehicle’s license plate. Even items as simple as a plate frame from a dealership is technically against the law. But Florida’s new law makes owning a flipper a second-degree misdemeanor, not just a traffic violation. Owning a device that can prevent someone from reading a plate will get you 60 days in jail plus a $500 fine in the sunshine state. Creating or selling plate flippers gets you a year in the clink plus a $1,000 fine. Using a plate flipper while committing a crime is now a felony; 5 years in jail, plus a $5,000 fine.
Their narrative is that ‘hardened criminals’ use plate flippers when omitting crimes, therefore benign usage (for aesthetic purposes at auto shows) must be criminalized too. But this is BS. It’s really about the almighty dollar! Criminals steal cars, or steal plates, when comfiting crimes to avoid detection. The fact that the public has learned to use plate flippers to avoid paying highway tolls and speeding tickets is the culprit.
In Tennessee, new laws went into effect in 2024 that ban plate flippers outright, making possession of the device a Class B misdemeanor, while making or selling them is a Class A misdemeanor.
But the battle between motorists and ‘the man‘ is not over. New devices are gaining popularity which are even more discreet. The Magic Leaf is a combination electromagnet behind a license plate, and a small metal ‘leaf’ placed over a letter or number. Seemingly stuck like magic to the plate, the motorist can simply push a button and release the leaf if Johnny Law is too close. Yet for highway tolls and cameras, obscuring even one character on a plate defeats them.
Scare tactics are always used by governments to outlaw things that also have legitimate use. “But the criminals!”
100% agree. I think that I have a legitimate reason to own such a device; I take my car to shows all summer long, and it’s a pain in the ass to get down under the bumper to remove/replace the plate with my ‘custom’ one. It would be very convenient to just push a button.
But if I were a criminal out doing bad stuff, I would either steal a plate, or just hang a rag over my actual plate to avoid detection. I would not go to the trouble to install a plate flipper.
This is all about potential lost revenue under the guise of fighting crime. What a joke!
I live in Pennsylvania and we do not require front license plate!!!
You are very lucky. Those front plates are so ugly on modern cars, nd they just get ruined by stones / salt / debris making the car look even worse. I do like California’s “sticker” license plates.
We don’t have front plates in New Mexico. People put shallow dome plastic covers over their plates that create reflections from the flashes of speed cameras that obscure the plates.
We wouldn’t have so much trouble with speeding out here if they would set speed limits at the natural speeds of the roads. Instead, all speeds are 10 to 15 mph below the natural speeds of the roads. Cops who are not on the prowl always drive 10 to 15 mph over the speed limit out here.
For the past couple years, I’ve written probably a dozen articles about speed cameras here in Toronto (I’m not a fan).
And exactly as you described, the speed limits across the city were arbitrarily set lower JUST before the speed cameras were rolled out city-wide.
When I visited small town Denmark, I learned that little country was so much more advanced and enlightened regarding motoring, They used chicanes, speed humps, table-tops, and roundabouts to change the ‘design speed’ of the road. If a road is 4 lanes wide and straight as an arrow, there’s a natural speed one would travel. And when that does not match the number on the sign, its a trap.
I’ll try that plastic dome idea. Thanks!