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Senate committee amends, advances bill limiting electric window tinting and revises fleeing penalties
Summary
The Senate Public Safety Committee amended House Bill 1022 to regulate electric window-tint technology and advanced the bill after testimony that Georgia’s felony fleeing statute already imposes steep mandatory minimums. An amendment aligned tint limits with Florida and the committee passed the substitute unanimously.
The Senate Public Safety Committee on Wednesday amended and advanced House Bill 1022, a package that includes a new restriction on electric window tinting and revisions tied to fleeing-and-eluding penalties.
Representative McDonald, the bill’s sponsor, said the electric-tint provision is aimed at officer safety: the technology allows in-vehicle film to change from dark to clear with the push of a button, he said, creating a potential dispute about whether a vehicle was dark at the time an officer first observed it. McDonald told the committee the substitute also extends a digital driver's-license sunset to 2032 and folds in measures previously taken up on fleeing and eluding.
David Bole, a criminal defense attorney who spent part of his career as a prosecutor, urged caution about the fleeing-and-eluding language. Bole said Georgia’s current felony fleeing statute carries a mandatory one-year minimum and — as courts have sometimes read it — treats each pursuing officer as a separate unit of prosecution, which can extend mandatory minimum time based on the number of officers involved. "You already have plenty of teeth in the law with regard to felony fleeing," Bole said, and he warned that mileage-based calculations could complicate sentencing and public understanding.
Senator Bearden offered amendment AM630025 to narrow the front-side-window definitions and bring Georgia’s tint-percentage rules for sedans closer to Florida’s standards, while preserving different treatment for trucks. The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote and then advanced the committee substitute as amended. The committee recorded no roll-call tally in the hearing record and passed the measure unanimously out of committee.
The committee also noted the bill’s fiscal and technical items will be handled by legislative counsel before the measure moves to the Senate calendar.
