PHOTO BY DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Alan Dudley, manager of T & T Tinting's shop off Ward Avenue, applied finishing touches yesterday to a van's newly tinted window. This tint, though reflective, is within legal limits.
Motorists rush Business at automotive window tinting companies on Oahu picked up after Honolulu police began cracking down on illegal tinting.
to replace tinting
The threat of a ticket
drives owners of cars
with dark windowsBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comPatrol officers started using light meters to test questionable tinting about a month ago, said Sgt. Robert Lung, Honolulu Police Traffic Division.
"No wonder somebody said they got a ticket," said Ralph Ambler, owner of AMCO Glass Tinting Co.
Ambler says he has been getting more calls from people asking to have the tints on their cars removed. He tells them how they can do it themselves.
T & T Tinting Specialists are fielding three times as many calls from people asking whether their tinting is legal, said owner Tommy Silva.
"It started about a week ago," Silva said. "A lot of people don't know what they have."
Silva has two shops on Oahu that do free light meter checks. He said both shops are replacing tinting on two to three more cars per day than before the crackdown.
Hawaii's motor vehicle screening or tinting law has been on the books since 1983. However, Honolulu police did not have light meters until about two months ago.
Before then, the only light meters owned by the city were at the Reconstructed Vehicle Permit Station in Kapahulu, where windows are tested for annual vehicle safety checks. Motorists issued citations for illegal tinting were told to go there to have their windows tested.
State law allows tinting that blocks as much as 65 percent of light from passing through, with a 6 percent margin of error. No tinting is allowed on windshields. Trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles that have side-view mirrors on both sides can have darker tinting and tinting on the rear windshield.
Cited motorists are required to post $97 bail, which goes up to $122 if they do not correct or clear the violation after 15 days.
Fines range from $50 to $250 per violation.
The Honolulu Police Department has 20 light meters. Each of the department's eight patrol districts has at least one, and the solo bike detail has the rest, Lung said.
