JOLIET, Ill. (WTVO) — The Joliet City Council will consider a proposal that would allow police to seize vehicles with tinted windows.

Last Friday, the City’s Land Use & Legislative Committee recommended adding illegally tinted windows and no-insurance to a list of traffic violations for which police can impound vehicles.

Illinois state law allows tinted windows, but bans tinting more than 35% that blackens the windows so much so that outsiders cannot see into the car.

Committee Chairwoman Jan Quillman said, “I’ve seen windshields black. You don’t know who’s driving the car. You don’t know if it’s a little old lady or a drunken sailor – for lack of a better word.”

Currently, having tinted windows is a towable offense.

The proposal would cost the driver of an offending vehicle somewhere in the range of $1,000, including towing, administrative fees, citation costs, and court fees.

The three-person committee unanimously recommended approval of the proposal, which will go before the full council for a vote on August 15th.

Joliet Police Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Dwayne English said the ordinance was due to an increase of heavily tinted vehicles in the city that are often “involved in criminal activity” ranging from “misdemeanors to homicide.”

The proposal was considered at a meeting on July 18th, but the council voted 8-1 to table the ordinance and send it back to the committee, with some members deeming the punishment as too “harsh.”

The council discussed the possibility of making an allowance for first-time offenders, but the version approved last Friday is the same unchanged version of the policy.

If passed, the ordinance would start on January 1st, 2024.