I've had my car for two years and have only received one ticket for not having a front plate. It was a $25 ticket and I got it while my car was parked for several hours. Countless police officers have seen me without a front plate on my car and have literally looked the other way.

They don't really care.

According to caldrive.com, it was posted that "cars driven in California should have both front and rear license plates (number plates). You are unlikely to get pulled over just for this, but it's a useful excuse if a police officer suspects you for something else, and it can cause you to get a small fine.

I'm unclear on whether California respects the rules for cars from places like Arizona where front plates aren't mandatory, but you should probably play it safe anyway and not give a police officer any reason to pull you over."

I read a blog called Cop Thoughts and he said a fairly recent post "First of all, don’t drive a vehicle with obvious equipment violations. You can drive 3mph under the speed limit, signal every lane change, and come to complete stops, but if your tail lights are dragging on the asphalt, I’m going to introduce myself."

CA Vehicle Code 5200. (a) When two license plates are issued by the department for use upon a vehicle, they shall be attached to the vehicle for which they were issued, one in the front and the other in the rear.

CA Vehicle Code 5201. License plates shall at all times be securely fastened to the vehicle for which they are issued so as to prevent the plates from swinging, shall be mounted in a position so as to be clearly visible, and shall be maintained in a condition so as to be clearly legible. The rear license plate shall be mounted not less than 12 inches nor more than 60 inches from the ground, and the front license plate shall be mounted not more than 60 inches from the ground,

I think the operative words of the law above are "clearly visible", "attached", and "mounted".

Would a license plate laying on your dashboard facing up be "clearly visible" to a police officer?
Would it be "attached" and/or "mounted" to your dashboard?

I think the answer to these questions would most likely be NO. And as a result would go against the Vehicle Code. Not that I am a stickler for the law, but by not following a pretty basic requirement you provide the police ample opportunity to pull you over. Now imagine you had a beer (or four) with dinner...now they have a reason to give you a field sobriety test. Now they determine you are under the influence. Then they give you a breathalizer test and you blow a 0.081%. BOOM you're in Jail, lost your license and have a lot of laywers fees and fines to repay...all because you don't want to mount a license plate of your front bumper.

I covered this a little bit ago on Metblogs, and discovered for some that keeping that front license plate off may actually save them money... because red light cameras sometimes only grab the image of the front license plate.