Has anyone ever pursued a case involving a device to conceal or obscure a license plate, but didn't actually flip the license plate? Or used this statute at all?

Trooper caught a guy with a device that essentially drops a black curtain over the LP to hide it, but doesn't "flip" it. The definition of a "license plate flipper" under Transportation Code 504.9465 is "a manual, electronic, or mechanical device designed or adapted to be installed on a motor vehicle and hide a license plate from view by flipping the license plate so that the license plate number is not visible." The device the Trooper found absolutely runs afoul of the spirit of the law, but is the definition tightly confined to a device that literally flips the LP?

The bill creating 504.9465 was proposed by the Bexar Co. CDA's Office back in 2013 and it was specifically targeted at LP flippers. From the bill analysis:

quote:

Under Texas law, it is illegal to have false or obscured license plates showing on a vehicle, but it is not currently illegal to possess a license plate flipper and operate a vehicle with false license plates that are not showing.

So if it doesn't flip, but merely obscures, the LP, Sec. 504.945 is probably the way to go.