American flags have been popping up everywhere from shirts to store windows to cars. However, showing your patriotic beliefs by displaying a flag in your car may mean getting a ticket.
It is illegal to have anything on a car window or rear-view mirror, because it can block the driver’s view of the road, according to state law. But while flag sales are increasing, state law enforcement is not planning to crack down on patriotic law-breakers.
Lt. Officer Steve Sell of the state highway patrol said it is illegal to put stickers or flags on car windows because they block the drivers’ view of the road.
“If you put anything in your window, it is considered a view obstruction,” Sell said. “I think that the law reads that you can’t have anything in the [driver’s] line of vision. And that include items on the rear-view mirror.”
Sell said although it is up to the officer to give a ticket, there are few situations where officers would dish out fines for flags.
“I think that we are fairly lenient about having objects in the window, but I can see a couple situations where officers would issue citations,” Sell said. “The first would be if a driver was involved in an accident because they were unable to see. The second would be if the flag was a flagrant safety hazard.”
Sell said he has not seen an increase in flags on car windows but noted there are more Badger and Packer flags on cars.
“For every American flag sticker or flag I see in a car window, there are at least five cars with Badger or Packers flags,” he said.
Madison Police Department public information officer Larry Kamholz said technically it is illegal to place anything on car windows. Any officer can decide whether or not the object is a safety hazard.
“If it obstructs the view in any way, then that’s going to be an issue,” Kamholz said.
Kamholz also said no one is being ticketed for having a flag in the window of their car, but if drivers are going to put flags in a car window, they have to be responsible for traffic signs, signals, other cars and pedestrians.
“This is just like any other time,” Kamholz said. “If it looks like safety is going to be a concern, we can’t just let it go because of the national incidents on Sept. 11.”
“There is no sense of change in the department,” Kamholz said. “We can’t just let things go. We can’t ignore violations. [Public safety] is what we are getting paid to do.”
UW-Madison professor of civil and environmental engineering Robert Smith said this is not a huge safety issue for the police department.
“There are lots of rules and regulations to protect people from things that are much more dangerous,” Smith said. “This is not a law where someone who breaks it is involved with risky behavior. There is obviously a reason that the windshield must be clear, but a lot of things compete for a motorist’s attention.”
Smith said officer discretion determines whether or not flags pose a dangerous threat.
