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The D.C. Council is considering cutting more slack for drivers who fail to renew their car registration as city police warn the move would take away an important law enforcement tool.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said she “likes” a suggestion by AAA Mid-Atlantic to issue “fix it” tickets that compel drivers to register their cars or pay more fines as a substitute for police impounding their cars.
Her comments came at a Tuesday committee hearing on permanently nixing a District law that allowed police to arrest drivers who have vehicle tags more than 30 days expired. Temporary legislation that allows cops to impound cars after the same time period is already in effect. Officers have been directed to use their discretion in impounding vehicles, Assistant Chief Patrick Burke testified Tuesday.
John Townsend, the car association’s manager of public and government affairs, told Cheh’s Committee on Environment, Public Works and Transportation that impounding cars as a penalty for having expired tags is still not in line with what other states do.
“You can have thousands of motorists with their cars impounded … costing thousands of dollars,” he said. “We’re not talking about total scofflaws here. We’re talking about otherwise law-abiding citizens.”
According to Metropolitan Police Department statistics, nearly 3,500 people were arrested over the past two years for driving with expired tags in the District. Roughly 250 of them spent time in jail, including a mother on her way to pick up one child from school while driving with her younger child in the car.
Burke, who heads MPD’s Strategic Services Bureau, said after Tuesday’s hearing that he did not know the specifics of that incident but there could be other circumstances not made public. He said police, if warranted, need to be able to have a stronger enforcement tool than simply writing a ticket.
“It was never a goal just to arbitrarily pull vehicles off the street — we obviously have a responsibility to keep dangerous vehicles off the street,” Burke said. “There’s a reason some people don’t register their vehicles in the first place.”
Others are skeptical of the council and Mayor Vincent Gray, who swiftly moved to change the law after pressure from AAA and Virginia Sen. Jim Webb. A year earlier, politicians had stood with police on the issue.
“Our politicians continue to pander to special interest groups that have little or no interest in public safety,” said police union President Kristopher Baumann, who didn’t attend the hearing.
