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BRIGHAM CITY — A northern Utah man is calling for a legislative change to allow darker tint on car windows.
Kamron Nelson, of Brigham City, started a Change.org petition addressed to Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee and other elected officials asking for a change in the law.
As of Sept. 28, the petition had about 4,700 signatures.
Nelson said there have been similar petitions in the past regarding tinted windows, but most have been too one-sided, asking for the law against window tinting to be removed entirely.
Nelson’s petition proposes a compromise that would make fines for tint offenses more reasonable while still considering the safety of law enforcement officers, he said.
“We wanted to try and start a petition that was more in the middle and more fair to both sides and see if we could get something changed,” Nelson said.
He’s hoping to get 10,000 signatures.
The petition suggests window tint infractions become secondary traffic offenses instead of primary offenses. Law enforcement officials can give citations for secondary offenses if they have already pulled over a driver for a primary offense, such as a speeding or taillight offense.
Nelson also wants to see fewer “fix-it” tickets for window tinting — when drivers are ordered to fix or remove the tint as a condition of the citation.
“I just feel that there’s a lot of benefits for darker tint, especially because Utah is a desert state,” he said.
Dark tint on windows can make a huge difference for the internal temperature of your car, Nelson said, especially if the car been sitting out in the sun all day in the summer. Tint can keep the inside of the car cooler.
Tint can also be beneficial for people with sensitive eyes, Nelson said.
Nelson used to work in administration for Brigham City and knows several people in law enforcement. He said he understands safety concerns for officers during traffic stops.
But some officers say tinting in the back and side windows isn't regulated, which is where officers approach cars during stops, Nelson said.
“That’s the main reason I think it should be a secondary offense,” he said, “because if it puts a police officer in danger to deal with a car that has tint, why would they want to pull over a car just because it has tint and put themselves in the exact situation it’s illegal for?”
Several people who claim to be police officers have commented on the petition in support of Nelson’s proposed changes.
Most of the commenters say they signed the petition because tint helps keep cars cooler in the summer.
Nelson said he’s hoping to have more open communication about the issue with lawmakers.
“We just need to kind of get our hat in the ring and say we’d like to discuss this more, rather than it just being changed without our input,” he said. “It would be awesome to have a more open channel of communication with our lawmakers about this specific issue. It’s been on our minds, and we’ve tried to get it changed in the past and nothing’s ever really come of it, so it’d be nice to have a more open discussion about it.”
