02/01/2024
I get a lot of people visiting my office because they were stopped for tints. Below is a Fact Sheet regarding window tint in Pennsylvania. If you are driving a vehicle with tint darker than 70% (meaning only 30% of light is kept out) then you are giving the police a reason to stop you.
Under Pennsylvania law pre-textual stops are legal. A pre-textual stop is when the police pull over a vehicle for a valid reason (like tints darker than 70%) even if their real intent is to find evidence of criminal activity unrelated to the reason for the stop. However, police cannot extend a traffic stop beyond the time it takes to issue a citation or warning for the motor vehicle code violation without reasonable suspicion to support a separate investigatory detention.
