The Law Offices of Thomas Glasgow - Chicago Window Tint | Video Transcript
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MALE VOICE: Live from Chicago's NBC 5, this is NBC 5 News at 10:00.
ALLISON: Now tonight's special report--tough times for tinted windows. Owners of cars with tinted front windows, which are allowed by Illinois law, are finding a different story when they park in the City of Chicago. They're getting tickets. Lisa Parker's here now with the story. Lisa?
LISA PARKER: Allison, for some time now, tinted windows used to be synonymous with criminal intent, gang bangers hiding weapons and drugs inside the car. But the thinking on tint has now changed in 39 states that allow specific levels of it on driver and passenger windows. Evidence on skin cancer protection and environmental efficiency for keeping cars cool was enough to convince those states but apparently not enough to convince the City of Chicago. For drivers who value the environment--
MALE VOICE: It's also a green element because there's less air conditioning required.
MALE VOICE: Scrap away any impurity.
LISA PARKER: --who value their health--
FEMALE VOICE: Helps protect you from the sun.
MALE VOICE: Positioning the film on the window.
LISA PARKER: --and who don't mind the extra style--
MALE VOICE: It looks good, yes.
LISA PARKER: --what's not to like about the recent Illinois law allowing a specific level of tint in car windows?
DAVE KRAUSE: That's why the police approved it. So everybody wins supposedly.
LISA PARKER: But car owners who say they followed the Illinois law are finding it does not apply in a surprising place, the state's largest city.
MALE VOICE: It dumbfounds me. I don't understand.
MALE VOICE: Well, beyond the upset, we're very angry.
LISA PARKER: Drivers with tinted windows say they are being targeted by Chicago police, given repeated tickets when their cars are parked, and who question the timing of a steep increase in the cost of the fine. Two years ago, a tint violation cost $25. Today, it has increased to ten times that.
MIKE TWEDELL: I was absolutely astounded that it was $250. That to me seems crazy.
LISA PARKER: The first time Mike Twedell got a $250 tint ticket in Chicago, he says he presumed it was ignorance of the new state law. But the second and then third time--?
MIKE TWEDELL: Seems to me that they're just trying to make money. They're--this is a revenue scheme.
SUZIE BASSI: They can't take it off when they come into the city.
LISA PARKER: State rep Suzie Bassi sponsored the bill, which sailed through the Illinois legislature last fall. It echoes what 38 other states have done in recent years, allowing an approved level of tint in front car windows, done she says with the support of the Illinois state police.
SUZIE BASSI: They spent hours doing their research and their homework. And they have decided that this is not an issue. The City of Chicago says it is.
DAVE KRAUSE: We proved to them with a demonstration that it's safer for them with 35 percent all the way around than what was legal before, which was anything and nothing on the front doors. Metering 31.4.
LISA PARKER: Using a device called a tint meter, tinter Dave Krause offered to measure the car windows of ticket recipients to see if they meet state code.
DAVE KRAUSE: The meter's 30 percent.
LISA PARKER: He found four of these five ticketed had tints within the allowed range.
FEMALE VOICE: I think the city is basically just making a lot of revenue off of something that's not hurting anybody.
LISA PARKER: So how can a city ignore a state law? Chicago is relying on the concept of home rule, which gives the city broad power to enact laws. But how far can that rule be taken?
THOMAS GLASGOW: It's unconstitutional because the uniform traffic code by its own terms is to be uniformly applied throughout the state. There are not to be variances in various regions.
LISA PARKER: In a statement, Chicago police say tinted windows pose a real safety risk for officers and the general public. An officer needs to be able to see inside a vehicle when conducting a traffic stop. They dispute the notion this is just a revenue enhancer. But the numbers are compelling. When tint violations cost $25 a ticket back in 2008, the city brought in $736,000 in related fines. The year the ticket amount went up to $250, the city reached $2.6 million in that same category. Most of the drivers who appealed these tickets tell us they lost. Legal experts say the city probably won't back off this big fine unless ordered by a judge.
THOMAS GLASGOW: The people's outrage are correct in feeling that somehow they have been hoodwinked by the City of Chicago into paying a fine or being ticketed for something in which they didn't--knew nothing about and they shouldn't have expected.
LISA PARKER: Now cars registered in other cities and even other states could get hit with these fines because Chicago police say it is up to one of their officer's discretion. They admit they don't carry any tint meters. Officers ticket solely on their opinion. If the tint is illegal by city code, they say they don't ticket factory tint that's installed just on the back of many SUVs and minivans, which makes supporters of this bill crazy because they say the dark factory-installed tint is so much darker than 35 percent. But it's a question that will probably have to be answered in court.
ALLISON: And they just can't take it off when they come into the city.
LISA PARKER: That's the heart of the legal question here, whether that violates the uniform code. And that means one of these people who has been hit with this ticket is going to have to get a lawyer, take some time off from work, and see if they can get an answer.
MALE VOICE: Alright. Thanks, Lisa.
LISA PARKER: You're welcome.
MALE VOICE: In Philadelphia tonight--
