Indiana Window Tint: One 30% Light Transmittance Floor on Every Window

The four glass positions named in Ind. Code § 9-19-19-4(c) are the windshield, the side wing, the side window that is part of a front door, and the rear back window. Indiana does not split the standard between front and rear glass the way many states do, so the same 30% visible light transmittance floor and the same 25% ceiling on total solar reflectance apply to a driver door window and to the back glass alike. Subsection (d) is the one place the treatment is narrowed: any treatment allowed on a windshield may be applied only to the uppermost part of the windshield and may extend no further than the AS-1 line, the manufacturer mark already etched into the glass.

Two exemptions sit ahead of the standard. Subsection (a) removes the whole section from a manufacturer tinting or glazing that complies with or is permitted by FMVSS205 as promulgated in 49 CFR 571.205, but only where proof from the manufacturer, supplier or installer is carried in the vehicle. Subsection (b) removes the section from the driver of a vehicle owned by an individual required for medical reasons to be shielded from the direct rays of the sun, and from the driver of a vehicle in which such an individual is a habitual passenger. The medical reasons must be attested to by a physician or optometrist licensed to practice in Indiana, the certification must be carried in the vehicle, and it must be renewed annually. Indiana is unusual in extending that exemption to a habitual passenger rather than only to the owner or driver.

Enforcement is roadside, and the structure of the Indiana Code shows why. Article 19 of Title 9 sets out motor vehicle equipment in 22 chapters, and the only equipment inspection programs in it are Chapter 20, for vehicles used to provide government funded transportation of passengers, and Chapter 22, for private buses designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers including the driver and registered with the bureau after December 31, 2015. Ind. Code § 9-19-22-3(b)(2) lists what that private bus program must check: brakes, lights, steering and suspension, exhaust systems, body and tires. There is no glazing item and no transmittance figure anywhere in it. Indiana runs no periodic safety inspection for passenger cars at all, so no meter is applied to a window on a schedule.

What Indiana gives police instead is a targeted stop power with a hard limit attached. Ind. Code § 9-19-19-4(f), added by P.L.164-2018, says a vehicle may be stopped to determine compliance with the section, but that the vehicle, its contents, the driver and any passenger may not be inspected, searched or detained solely because of a violation of the section. A tint stop is a lawful basis for measuring the glass and writing a ticket, and nothing more.

A driver who violates any part of Chapter 19 commits a Class C infraction under Ind. Code § 9-19-19-7(b), which carries a judgment of up to $500 under Ind. Code § 34-28-5-4(c). The vehicle owner is separately exposed: Ind. Code § 9-19-1-5 forbids an owner from causing or knowingly permitting a noncomplying vehicle to be operated on a highway. The heavier penalty falls on the shop. Ind. Code § 9-19-19-4(e) prohibits tinting, covering or treating the listed glass so that operating the vehicle afterwards violates subsection (c) or (d), and Ind.

Code § 9-19-19-8 makes that a Class A infraction, a judgment of up to $10,000 under Ind. Code § 34-28-5-4(a). An installer has a statutory defence: it is not a violation of the chapter if the work is performed for a person who first submits the physician or optometrist statement described in subsection (b) to the person doing the work. Chapter 19 does not apply at all to an owner or operator whose vehicle is equipped as required under United States Department of Transportation regulations, per Ind. Code § 9-19-19-7(a).