Can a license plate frame get speeding drivers off the hook?

But rather than getting slapped with a fine last year on U.S. 101 south of San Francisco, Nick Palefsky was let go with a warning.

"He said, 'Next time, be a little bit more cautious,' " Palefsky recounted in a recent interview. It was one of four occasions in the last three years in which Palefsky, 22, said he was stopped by California Highway Patrol or local police officers; only once did he receive a ticket.

Palefsky believes a license plate frame proclaiming membership in the California Highway Patrol 11-99 Foundation helped him avoid the tickets.

The foundation, based in Fullerton, draws its name from the emergency police radio code for "officer needs assistance." It has taken in millions of dollars in tax-free donations for more than 25 years and used the money to aid families of CHP employees.

For $5,000, donors have received the license plate frame as well as, until recently, a brass identification card bearing a small star similar to a CHP badge. The group says neither one was intended as a way to get out of tickets. But Palefsky is hardly the only one who believes they function that way.

The frame has been called "the ultimate speeding ticket solution in California" on an online Mercedes-Benz chat board. And recently, the frames have been popping up for sale on Craigslist and EBay, for $250 to $1,000. The resales have angered the foundation but it has so far been unable to stop them.

"There's definitely a perceived benefit, as well as a real benefit," said one online seller, who asked that his name not be used. "There's this real tangible benefit of possibly getting favorable treatment from a CHP officer."

In response to inquiries from The Times, CHP Commissioner J.A. Farrow looked into the matter and was "surprised" and "bothered" by what he found. Farrow, who took over the top spot at the agency this year, said he was concerned that the frames were creating a perception that 11-99 membership results in beneficial treatment from officers.

He issued an agency-wide memo this month reiterating the CHP's policy against giving anyone special consideration, and strengthened it by adding: "CHP personnel shall not honor nor recognize any form of communication which purports, infers or extends a privilege or immunity" from enforcement of the law.