Interesting thought. Haven't tested it of course. So in California at least some basic searching hasn't found any statute which prevents you from displaying additional plates on your car, there is this one: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_... which is the standard one. I've seen a number of trucks with multiple plates from different states, and of course the trucks from Mexico have both a Mexico plate and a US plate.

I'm curious if you got cited for this, what they might cite you as violating?

> I've seen a number of trucks with multiple plates from different states

All of which would be registered to that vehicle, which is not what you are talking about doing. Your entire premise is about displaying plates that aren't registered to your vehicle, which will at the very least get you pulled over in most jurisdictions, if not cited.

> I'm curious if you got cited for this, what they might cite you as violating?

In Georgia where I live, it would be this:

http://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-40/chapter-2/...

In short, you can't display a tag on your vehicle that isn't registered to it.

I get that what you are talking about doing is civil disobedience, and I'm not faulting you for that. I'm not a fan of automated license plate readers myself, or more specifically the lack of oversight given that it's usually operated by third party, for-profit companies. I'm just pointing out the flaws in your plan, based on what I know of the law (and I'm not a lawyer, just a former law enforcement staff member).

That statute is similar to the California one in that it says you have to show a valid plate for your vehicle. And like the California statute is notionally silent on the idea of making a plate visible on your vehicle that is in addition to your completely legal plates, and shown in such a way that it does not imply it is the vehicles registration plate.

For the purposes of the experiment I bet you could wrap it in a frame that says "this is not the registration plate for this car" in easy to read letters.

Clearly the safer bet would be enlisting pedestrians or cyclists as the law is silent on either having a car plate visible while they are near street cameras and passing patrol cars.

> is notionally silent on the idea of making a plate visible on your vehicle that is in addition to your completely legal plates

No, it's pretty clear and straightforward:

"(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, it shall be unlawful:

...

(3) To buy, receive, use, or possess for use on a motor vehicle any license plate not issued for use on such motor vehicle"

But again that's Georgia law, so by all means go ahead and plaster your car with fake license plates and post back here with the results. You might indeed not get a second glance from your local law enforcement. And if you end up causing problems for the ALPRs employed by your local government, all the better. :)

Thanks, I'm going to have to lookup the case law on that one to see if people have ever contested of being in violation of having an additional plate visible on their car.