Posted on 04/08/2008 10:42:20 AM PDT by kellynla
SACRAMENTO – Saying that government employees shouldn't be able to evade traffic tickets because they have secret license plates, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer said Monday that he will propose legislation to help traffic enforcement agencies pierce the shield.
Spitzer was responding to an Orange County Register investigation that showed that a Department of Motor Vehicles program designed to protect law enforcement from criminals was giving them another kind of protection: They can drive on toll roads without paying, run red light cameras with impunity and park illegally.
For example, 3,722 public employees have run the 91 Express Lanes in the past five years, public documents show.
Companies that subcontract to process many traffic and parking citations don't have access to home addresses of nearly 1 million public employees whose personal cars are registered through the Confidential Records Program. And the agencies that do have access lack the time or will to hold violators accountable, the Register found.
"It is patently unfair and just plain wrong for someone who has a confidential plate to be able to hide behind the confidentiality to avoid enforcement when any other person would have to face the citation," Spitzer, R-Orange, said Monday.
But even as Spitzer was working to fix the program, the Assembly Transportation Committee voted to expand it Monday.
On a 13-0 vote, the committee approved Assembly Bill 1958, which extends confidential plates to veterinarians, firefighters and code enforcement officers.
"I don't want us to lose sight of the separate and very specific purpose of this legislation," said the bill's author, Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland. "And that is that this is a public safety issue. And there are lives of public workers, public safety officers, that are put on the line every day on our behalf that need to be protected."
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
ping
And for those who hadn’t already heard
Special License Plates Shield Officials From Traffic Tickets(California)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1997145/posts
She's right. Do you have any idea how many veterinarians are murdered each year by contract killers who have managed to trace their license plates? Do you?
This may be a good issue for CA Republicans to hit on.
They billed some guy thirty grand for driving on those expressways with an expired credit card.
“Some animals are more equal than others”
This only applies to traffic cams. I have two friends who NEVER get tickets because they flash their badge to the HiPo Officer.
Just more police corruption. Move along.
Wow, a million government workers afraid that their victims will get so angry they’ll want to kill them. Says a lot about the conduct of California government.
The California state gov’t is going out of its way to destroy its own credibility.
It was bad before I saw this....
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