Demarquize Dawson was driving a rental car near the Hard Rock Casino in Davie, Florida when a police officer stopped him and arrested him because the license plate frame on the vehicle partially covered the first “S” in “Sunshine State.” Dawson spent the night in jail and ended up in the hospital after a panic attack.
- Police released him and apologized, saying vague and unclear wording in the statute made them think this was illegal.
- A license plate frame obscuring part of the license plate is only illegel if it obscures the numbers and letters of the plate itself or the validation sticket.
- “Sunshine State” and county names don’t count because they are not a “primary feature” of the plate.
Florida man has been arrested and spent a night in jail because the "S" in "Sunshine State" on his rental car's Florida license plate was obstructed by a frame.
This law was passed by the pro Flock camera lobby and the penalties for it are absolutely absurd police state BS.… pic.twitter.com/motRusOELb
— Mrgunsngear (@Mrgunsngear) December 18, 2025
Florida 320.262 is a new section on “license plate obscuring devices” that are designed to interfere with detectability and recording of a plate number or validation sticker. It says you can’t attach or apply material “onto or around” a plate that interferes with the legibility, detectability, or recording of any feature or detail, and makes a knowing violation a second-degree misdemeanor with penalities of up to 60 days jail and a $500 fine.
By specifying that oscuring “any feature or detail” is illegal, that suggests covering the plate’s S for Sunshine State could be a crime. This should have been consistently drafted to reference primary features and details, or license plates and validation stickets.
It’s not clear whom the customer rented the car from. The license-plate frame on the vehicle reads “CROWNCARS.COM.” That belongs to florida dealership group Crown Automotive.
If it were Hertz, the jokes would write themselves, but then it’s usually been Hertz falsely reporting their own customers to the police – not accidentally covering up the S in Sunshine State on a Florida license plate.
Florida is a third world country (a s@&$those state?) the home of a corrupt President, a Senator who defrauded taxpayers of more than $1 billion and a Governor aspiring to join the club. I’m sure some private prison or other lobby made such a law to be interpreted by a police officer looking for illegals to round up using any excuse? That’s the world we live in.
I am trying to understand how this escalated to arrest. Why wasn’t this just a written citation or even a fix-it ticket and all parties move on? Oh, that’s right, it was Florida.
He should get a big paycheck from the police department’s insurance company.
Another great reminder why we avoid this knuckle-dragging state like the plague.
That arresting officier was just a Barney Fife looking to fill his Quota.
Snowbirds beware. Why was this man detained? Wouldn’t a warning have sufficed? What about all the new electronic license plates with their changeable personal greetings? And AutoNation probably isn’t happy about the cause being their free publicity frames. The moral of this story is that laws must be written with precision — unless FL wants to be known as The Opaque State.
Yes, Please for goodness sakes, stay out of Florida! It’s the most dangerous state in America. While Florida doesn’t have random stabbings on public transit, commuters being pushed onto subway tracks by random repeat offenders, people being set on fire on public transportation, homeless randomly punching people on the streets, drug infested homeless encampments, and ever increasing rates of crime by illegal aliens, it does have license plate frame laws, and they do take them seriously.
In most states it is the state name that can not be covered over