Some Arizona license plates show their wear over the years when the clear coat of paint starts to peel off. After that happens, the next layer of reflective paint can start to lift off of the plates, too.
But the sprouting of dull grey plates you see around town is not entirely the work of natural forces.
An apparent increase in license plates with marred backgrounds made reader Tom Varnell suspect people are smearing grey paint around the numbers on purpose, or otherwise tampering with the plates.
"I wonder if this has something to do with trying to defeat the hated speed cameras. It would be the only reason that I would think of," Varnell wrote.
State law requires that all the characters on the license plate be visible, said Harold Sanders, a Department of Public Safety spokesman.
People are also reading…
The Motor Vehicle Division will replace a plate for free if the reflective material is gone because of a manufacturing defect, said Lourdes Lerma, an MVD spokeswoman.
If you have to pay, though, the normal plate-replacement fee is $5.
But what about those who don't want to fix the problems with their plate - or who intentionally messed up the background?
It's hard for an officer to know whether a license plate needs to be replaced because of normal use, say from a rear-end accident or a trailer hitch coming in contact with the plate, or whether someone has intentionally altered the plate, Sanders said.
If DPS officers pull someone over because a plate is unreadable, they usually will write an equipment-repair order. That is not a citation, but it requires motorists to let the state know they are resolving the problem - in this case, getting a legible license plate.
Officers have "no way of determining criminal intent" or finding a repeat offender, since a repair order is not a citation and is not recorded in the same database as citations, Sanders said.
Andrea Kelly
