Covering or obscuring auto license plates is illegal in Oregon, but the practice is widespread, making roads more dangerous for other motorists and pedestrians alike.
Anyone driving on a Portland-area streets cannot fail to be struck by the fact that while most cars obey the speed limit, a significant and growing minority drive as if the traffic laws don’t apply to them. While most Portland area drivers stop at red lights, stop signs, and crosswalks, a significant and growing number of drivers speed through recently-turned red lights, barely even slow down for stop signs and completely ignore crosswalks. Anyone looking closely will see that these scofflaws, who make traffic more dangerous for everyone, often have one thing in common: obscured auto license plates that cannot be captured by traffic cameras.
Some people install darkly tinted license plate covers, while others use a heavily scratched clear cover. A few even buy expensive polarized covers that look somewhat clear to the human eye but interact with the lenses on cameras so that they come out black on images…