tattling on illegal tinting

tint123 · November 27, 2007

Well said If you don't have the balls to confront them then let them be

I have to disagree with you Diamond.

If you see folks selling wacky tabaccy to kids outside of a school, would you confront them ? Might get shot if you did.

Thats what the cops are for, let the ones with the guns confront the bad guys !

November 27, 2007

Damn dudet dont get your southern P@NTIES all in a bunch. It is a tinting message board not a court room . In 15 yrs of tinting never seen a shop get a ticket or a yr in jail like you say. I will contact my team of lawyers and resarch the matter and get back to you .

In FL it is a 2nd dgree misdemeanor to install anything that violates the law. Never heard of anyone getting busted.
These customers are calling you on the phone. Even if you shut down your closest competition they will just keep calling until they find what they want. Everyone has a niche in the market. You won't gain anything by removing someone who is not your competition.

The cops had a field day in Florida back in the mid/late '80s. The FEDS came in and started enforcing a federal (?) limit of 70% on front rollups, and the local jurisdictions were enforcing state law with a vengence. TRUST ME, nobody wants to see a massive crackdown. EVERYONE gets upclose and personal scrutiny under a microscope. That close up, NOBODY looks real good. They gonna find something if they want!

I haven't seen or heard of anyone getting popped of late either, but it could happen at any time. The laws are on the books, and can be enforced anytime they want. And Fla is REALLY notorious for "selective" enforcement.

But this lack of enforcing one part of the law only reinforces my position on tint laws. They are :nope . If the Cops really felt that tint was such a danger to them, trust me, they'd be ALL OVER IT!! They don't feel that threatened. It's all about the money.

And I never said it WOULD happen, only that it COULD happen.

November 27, 2007

I was a cop for six years (3 at the city level, 3 at the county level) before opening my shop. The only business I have ever seen cited, or heard of for that matter, was a bar allowing dope dealing with constant shootings and stabbings. We cited the owner for "unruly establishment" which does nothing really except put their liquor license at risk. No license = No business = problem solved. I would not want to be in the dispatch center when the call came in for a complaint on a shop doing illegal tinting. The laughter would drowned out the 911 calls for hours :lol2 :nope

As far as the Feds being called in during the 80's to enforce window tint......come on really....please post the link to that news story! We can't get the Feds to take on dr*g trafficking cases with million dollar seizures.....but they have time to write tint tickets! Don't believe everything you hear... :nope

flat rock stan · November 27, 2007

We have the laws posted in our waiting room and will not do 5% on front doors. Everybody in town does 5% on doors and the distributors don't give a dang horses behind as long as they sell the sheet. I would love to see a sting for the fun of it nobody cares so I cut back auto tint by over 70k this year alone and do commercial instead to make up for it. If I was focused on cars I'd get more money by doing custom graphics and drop the illegal tint. Paint protection is good but it all turns yellow after a while and sometimes damages the paint if you try to remove it. Graphics is the ticket!

Graphics are the answer and the future for a lot of us. Just not many know it yet.

Write it down

Mr. Rogers

11-24-07

November 27, 2007

If your local law enforcement does not enforce the laws regarding tint, I think you are fighting a lost cause. Folks will continue to get illegal tint until the laws are enforced.

For example, if cops want to reduce the amount of dr*g dealers, they should severely punish the buyer, thus reducing demand. Although there are many other factors involved with the dr*g issue, I think you get the idea.

Here in San Diego, as far as I understand it, the fine is still a $10 fix-it ticket. That's not a very effective deterrent to reduce the number of illegally tinting windows. Therefore many, many cars have darker than what the state allows. What I try to do is help a potential customer realize that the ticket is much more than $10. They have to factor in the initial cost of the tint, say $70, then also factor in the removal cost, say $15-$20. The $10 ticket has has now become about $100 when all costs are accounted for. Most people will be ok with paying $10 but few are willing to fork out $100 for something that can be completely avoided.

VWaholic · November 27, 2007

Just wait until a police officer or highway patrol officer gets shot from behind a tinted driver roll up in your city or state. I think that's about the only way they'll start to give a :beer .

I really like the idea about sending a letter to the News station! :lol2 Along the same lines you might also want to forward that letter to your local news paper.

November 27, 2007

I was a cop for six years (3 at the city level, 3 at the county level) before opening my shop. The only business I have ever seen cited, or heard of for that matter, was a bar allowing dope dealing with constant shootings and stabbings. We cited the owner for "unruly establishment" which does nothing really except put their liquor license at risk. No license = No business = problem solved. I would not want to be in the dispatch center when the call came in for a complaint on a shop doing illegal tinting. The laughter would drowned out the 911 calls for hours
As far as the Feds being called in during the 80's to enforce window tint......come on really....please post the link to that news story! We can't get the Feds to take on dr*g trafficking cases with million dollar seizures.....but they have time to write tint tickets! Don't believe everything you hear...

The early/mid eighties was a REAL interesting time in S. Fla. with multi-jurisdictional task forces just getting into full swing against the cartels. We had custys who spent LOTS of cash on thier cars. I had one custy who spent upwards of 30k on stereo, cellular,(VERY expensive back then) INMARSAT systems, plus I installed a few things he bought elsewhere (counter surveillance equip.). All of this on a basic Volvo 240DL :lol2 But the feds came in and subpeonaed my records (Thankfully, I kept records) trying to tie this dude to large cash amounts.

It may sound rediculous to think that the feds were "writing tint tickets", but they were EVERYWHERE these guys were spending cash. There isn't any ONE link to ONE story, and even if there were, I didn't save it for 20 years for ya. Try the Tampa Trib, or the Miami Herald archives. It's there. There are a few folks left at SunGard who probably remember that as well.

Just wait until a police officer or highway patrol officer gets shot from behind a tinted driver roll up in your city or state. I think that's about the only way they'll start to give a .
I really like the idea about sending a letter to the News station! Along the same lines you might also want to forward that letter to your local news paper.

It's already happened, dude. More than a few times an officer has been involved in some sort of a situation that erupted in gunfire. The media always includes the tag line "the car had dark tinted windows". Nevermind that the car might have been a block away, or the incedent occured outside the car, it still had dark windows, and that was the cause du jour. Nevermind that the cop was pulling over a car that was reported stolen by possibly a known violent offender, and was transporting dr*gs. Nevermind that the tags on said car matched the stolen vehicle. Nevermind the fact that the cop pulled the car over without backup available KNOWING FULL WELL that he might be facing a violent felon. It was the dark tinted window that did the poor officer in. NO WAY could it have been p1ss-poor judgement.

tint123 · November 27, 2007

Some Suburbs in the Dallas area will tow your car if you do not have Insurance when stopped for a Traffic violation. Towing a car with tint beyond the law would be a good deterrent !

November 27, 2007

this has nothing to do with the OP, but this pisses me off:

Once you let the customer know that it is illegal and you are not responsible why do you care.

you and anyone who thinks like you is an AZZ. that's 16-year-old burger-flipping kid mentality. it's illegal, but I won't get busted, so I don't care.

that crap is why tinters get no respect.

you need to care. you need to invest in your own future. this industry will not have a future if people keep thinking like that. why waste years and frustration learning the trade if you're going to sh1t on it by not giving a crap about what you install?

:gasp

lorenzotint · November 28, 2007

this has nothing to do with the OP, but this pisses me off:
you and anyone who thinks like you is an AZZ. that's 16-year-old burger-flipping kid mentality. it's illegal, but I won't get busted, so I don't care.

that crap is why tinters get no respect.

you need to care. you need to invest in your own future. this industry will not have a future if people keep thinking like that. why waste years and frustration learning the trade if you're going to sh1t on it by not giving a crap about what you install?

16 year old kids love dark windows, I guess[ I don't have any that age who will pay my prices] they will grow out of it as they get older :gasp .... and some tinters who are really great installers do get mucho respect :shock