I just wanted to emphasize this point. This is the law that says that if the manufacturer put three lamps on each side, all three must be kept working. The same goes for two license plate lamps. One may be enough to illuminate the plate, but all lamps installed on the car by the manufacturer must be working.gregthehand wrote: (g) A taillamp, including a separate lamp used to illuminate
a rear license plate, must emit a light when a headlamp or auxiliary
driving lamp is lighted.
EDIT: I forgot to add that I agreed with another poster on traffic stops. I have made many felony arrests that started as traffic stops. One that jumps to mind started as an expired registration sticker that I had intended to give a warning on. The marijuana in plain view on the front seat led me to look further into things. It turned out the car had been stolen two years earlier and the registration was from the thief's car. He had been halfway smart and stolen the same year and make/model as his car and just kept the registration going. He just got a little sloppy that year.
Having said that, I don't think the officer in the OP was fishing. He probably did not pull out because of the license plate light, but noticed it as soon as he was behind the car. The blocks to stop the car was probably waiting for a return on running the license plate before stopping him.