Panel approves ban on electric/adjustable window tint, adopts amendment aligning tint percentages with Florida

The Senate Public Safety Committee adopted an amendment to House Bill 1022 that targets electric (adjustable) window-tint technology and adjusts allowable tint percentages for certain vehicle windows to mirror Florida standards.

Representative McDonald presented the substitute as a combined measure that includes officer-safety language aimed at preventing drivers from using in-vehicle adjustable tint to defeat a traffic-stop observation. "As technology has changed... you can make it blacked out or you can make it 50%... and if an officer sees someone violating the window tint law and he pulls them over, they can hit a button in their car and it can change it to clear," McDonald said, describing the officer-safety rationale.

Senator Bearden offered amendment AM 63,025 to redefine front side and door windows and to lower the allowed front-side tint from 32% to 28% (and to adjust other sedan percentages). Senator Robertson asked for clarification and confirmed the amendment would prohibit electric tinting in Georgia; the committee adopted the amendment by voice vote.

During public testimony on the substitute’s fleeing-and-eluding provision, criminal-defense attorney David Boyle warned that Georgia’s existing felony-fleeing law already carries a mandatory minimum one-year prison term, that multiple officers can lead to consecutive counts, and that mileage-based sentencing calculations and recidivist enhancements can produce substantially longer terms. "I just wanted to speak about the felony fleeing portion... the current felony fleeing law already allows... you can't get probation for it... it's a 1 to 10 felony and you can only get 1 year... the judge cannot probate any portion of that," Boyle said.

Representative McDonald said he was comfortable with the substitute after amendments and noted he had removed related digital-tag language at stakeholders’ request. After committee amendment and votes, the committee adopted the new committee substitute as amended and approved passage out of committee.

Next steps: The committee passed the substitute and returned the amendment to legislative counsel for drafting; Senator Robertson agreed to carry the Senate-side version.