Joliet committee again OKs seizure of vehicles with illegally tinted windows

A Joliet City Council committee again has recommended seizure of vehicles with illegally tinted windows without exceptions for first offenses.

Joliet plans to add illegally tinted windows and no-insurance to the list of traffic offenses that can lead to vehicles being impounded.

It’s the penalty for tinted windows that has drawn opposition.

The City Council in July sent the measure back to committee for revision to include some kind of allowance for first-time offenders, so they could comply with the law before losing their vehicles.

The Land Use and Legislative Committee on Friday, however, voted 3-0 to recommend approval of the measure without making exceptions. The matter is slated to go back to the council for a vote on Aug. 15.

The committee did recommend delaying enactment of the penalty until January to give people time to lower the tint on their windows to legal levels.

Two Joliet residents advocated against the measure altogether, saying it amounted to an unconstitutional seizure of property for a minor offense.

“There is no criminal conduct for tinted windows,” Jerry Hervey told the committee. “If I get caught jaywalking, what are you going to do? Pull me over and take my shoes?”

Deputy City Attorney Chris Regis on Monday said illegally tinted windows and driving without insurance are criminal “but they are petty offenses.” He said the city already authorizes seizure of vehicles for other traffic offenses, including driving with an expired license.

He said the offenses create what the city considers “unsafe vehicles. We are removing that unsafe vehicle from the roadway.”

The committee briefly discussed the proposed compromise allowing exceptions for first-time offenders of the tinted window law.

Council member Cesar Guerrero, who in July described the seizure penalty as too harsh, noted that the exception had not been added to the ordinance being reviewed by the committee. But he joined Committee Chairwoman Jan Quillman and council member Sherri Reardon in recommending approval with enactment delayed to January.

Reardon said she had discussed the matter with police and first-time exceptions would be impractical.

“I was told the warning is something they can always do, but it’s not something they can track,” she said.

Tinted windows are legal, but state law bans tinting to a point that windows become so opaque that outsiders, including police officers, cannot see inside the vehicle.

“I’ve seen windshields black,” Quillman said. “You don’t know who’s driving the car. You don’t know if it’s a little old lady or a drunken sailor – for lack of a better word.”