Troopers Cracking Down On Obscured License Plates

State Police Trooper Stephen Hammons joined 'Mornings With Ken and Bernie' today to discuss a statewide crackdown on obscured license plates and a new law that goes into effect tomorrow.

Hammons said it is illegal to obscure the numbers, letters, expiration year and the state of Louisiana name on your vehicle's license plate.  According to Trooper Hammons it is even illegal to drive a vehicle with a license plate that is excessively dirty.  Hammons noted that State Police are getting more complaints about plates that have been spray painted to match the vehicle or plates that are covered by plastic to make the plate unreadable from an angle.  Obscuring the plate on a vehicle hinders efforts of law enforcement officers when searching for a suspect or suspect vehicle.  According to Hammons state police are increasing efforts to ticket all offenders.

Hammons said,

"Tomorrow a new state law will become effective that says a divided multi-lane road will be treated as a divided highway with a physical median.  This means a northbound car will not have to stop for a southbound school bus picking up or dropping off children.  That center turn lane can now be used as a merge lane for up to 200 feet."

Listen to the interview: