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Calguns LEOs LEOs; chat, kibitz and relax. Non-LEOs; have a questions for a cop? Ask it here, in a CIVIL manner. |
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#1
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dept policy vs personal responce, driver has no registration/CADL, what do you do?
If nobody answers this I won't be surprised but this question specifically pertains to the Los Angeles metropolitan area, greater LA county and larger incorporated areas of CA such as sacramento, riverside san bernadino, san Fransisco etc etc.
Answer if you want or don't on as much level as you feel like. I am constantly more and more seeing drivers in the greater Los Angeles area who are operating motor vehicles who do not have a valid CADL most have CA issued ID, when determining ownership of the vehicle I find they have a title but no insurance. In also more and more common circumstances I find out they have been driving with dealership plates for years with no repercussions. I've gotten to the point of running the vin with local LE to ensure the vehicle is not stolen and flat out asking them "what do you do when you get pulled over"? the overwhelming response is "I don't know" I believe it was majority dept's policy (within LA area) 20 years ago no valid CADL/no valid registration the car was impounded on the spot, did something officially or unofficially change? Is this an immigration issue that has spilled over into people who just don't feel like paying parking tickets? What am I missing here?
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Sapper Morton: How does it feel? Killing your own kind? K: I don't "retire" my own kind, because we don't run... |
#2
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I’ll add more later if I have time; IMO it is a mix of poor people being unable to pay fines/child support, people refusing to change driving habits to prevent tickets in the first place, illegal aliens, and a mix of agencies/law not allowing for quite as many impounds.
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#3
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I may be a little dated here. I've been retired five years now.
When I left, it was pretty much standard practice that if a driver had a suspended license, or was never issued a driver's license, we impounded the car for 30 days. If the driver had valid ID, the driver would get a citation. If the "Vacancy" sign was on in the jail, and the driver was suspended, then the driver could go to jail, but that was rare. Refer to CVC section 14602.6 If the driver was previously licensed, but not currently licensed, the car would be impounded until a licensed driver could recover it. Refer to CVC section 22651(p). The L.A. City Police Dept was going through some political turbulence over the use of 14602.6 impounds. I understood that they had an internal policy not to hold for the full 30 days (even though the policy did not comport with the Vehicle Code). The 14602.6 law has a "carrot" built into it. If the driver at the time of impound obtains a driver's license, then they are able to get the car out of impound early.
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If you build a man a fire, you'll keep him warm for the evening. If you set a man on fire, you'll keep him warm for the rest of his life. |
#4
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Since driving unlicensed became an infraction, our department no longer tows the vehicle on the first offense. If they have priors, or are 14601 then we tow. To me its nonsense because i was avid about towing cars.
Because CA is so lenient on just about everything, I think people feel its ok to just drive around unlicensed. Realistically, unless they do something stupid, there is very little chance they will get pulled over. There's just too many of them and too few of us. |
#5
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As of 4 years ago there were three options for impounding unlicensed drivers... 30 days, 1 day, or have them park the car and promise to have a licensed driver pick it up.
The one day option was around forever (all the way back to the Adam 12 days). Basically, you can pick it up if you have a licensed driver go with you to pick it up. The 30 day option came along in the 90's (if I remember correctly). It was supposed to be a way to make getting your car back so expensive that unlicensed drivers wouldn't be able to afford to get their cars out of impound, thus eliminating unlicensed drivers (stupid Sacramento logic). Most drivers who fell into this category would just buy another $500 car. The third option is a discretionary thing. Sometimes cops don't have time to wait for the tow truck to show up. Calls for service start stacking up. Sometimes they just want to cut the person a break. Department policies different from city to city, county to county... |
#6
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I thank all who responded. I didn't want to taint/sway any responses but about 10 years back retired LT from a smaller dept in west LA talked about how he saw people digging through the blue bins driving cars no DL/registration in his neihborhood; and he expressed to me his personal view was putting a financial hardship on someone was not in line with the spirit/purpose of the law. Eventually he changed after he realized the amount of hit and runs and DWI/DUI's and other more serious issues that came from the concept if there was no registration or DL and its a 300$ car there was no motivation to bother to pay for either of those or take responsibility in one's actions. Not to mention even if tags were written down during the crime it only left less evidence for punishment if the car was not registered to the actual driver.
I understand there is an issue of manpower that an actual LEO shouldn't have to babysit a car till the tow shows up but, can't this be delegated to traffic/parking enforcement as soon as the decision is made? We have time LA to write parking tickets and tow illegally parked cars but, no time to tow cars illegally driven? seems asinine. In addition seems like a huge loss of revenue for cities even if the party never reclaims the car, the car can be sold at auction and money can be put into whatever it is they are using to justify outlandish registration costs the rest of us pay.
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Sapper Morton: How does it feel? Killing your own kind? K: I don't "retire" my own kind, because we don't run... Last edited by repoman1984; 08-16-2018 at 10:53 PM.. |
#8
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Driving with insurance and no license does not help anyone because insurance only covers drivers with a valid license. If you are driving without a license, your insurance is invalid. You need both to be covered in an crash.
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#9
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Interesting, I honestly did not know that. I have seen quite a few with what appeared to be insurance along with no CADL, I have zero means of validating the insurance as real or not. I still believe both should be enforced considering (correct me if I'm wrong here) but the fine for a law abiding citizen with a valid DL who breaks the law and neglects insurance is somewhere around $1,000.00 I strongly believe a policy of letting things slide punishes those of us who are playing by the rules.
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Sapper Morton: How does it feel? Killing your own kind? K: I don't "retire" my own kind, because we don't run... |
#10
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Several years ago in a NorCal city, the police department folded and the state police (CHP) along with neighboring departments came in to impose the law. As this was a particularly rough area with high crime, CHP did what they knew how to do best. They stopped every car they could for any violations they could find and impounded every vehicle without registration or a licensed driver. It’s a lot harder to commit a drive by shooting on a Schwen. The tow yards were overflowing but the general crime stats actually went down.
That is the way I look at 12500/14601 and 4000a with suspended reg for no insurance. |
#11
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Its my understanding no revenue of the vehicle auction sale (if the vehicle is never claimed post impound) goes towards any government funds. Perhaps if we changed this tow yards would see an increase in vehicle volume and revenue and wouldn't mind a percentage split (say maybe 25% to the city/county?) with the dept of the sale value at auction? Just thinking out-loud but we'd see a lot less unlicensed drivers or a lot more safer driving practices imho.
I am aware dope-related seized cars sometimes end up as unmarked cars depending on the dept.
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Sapper Morton: How does it feel? Killing your own kind? K: I don't "retire" my own kind, because we don't run... |
#12
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Quote:
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Stay classy, CGF and Calguns. |
#13
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Quote:
Are you saying this may be a politically motivated illegal-immigration issue for some depts? Possibly under pressure from outside of the dept entities? I work in Los Angeles and deal in areas you may or may not be familiar with known for having high illegal immigration population such as Huntington park, and south-gate, el monte, Bell gardens to name a few and have suspected something like this for quite a while as these tend to be the majority of non valid DL/fake DL/ non registration areas. I've suspected if there was ever an official or unofficial order to look the other way.I contrast this to where as a dept such as Huntington beach have been known to be very aggressive for any moving violations and although I do not know dept policy I would assume a car would be towed very quickly under their policy failing road worthy requirements.
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Sapper Morton: How does it feel? Killing your own kind? K: I don't "retire" my own kind, because we don't run... |
#14
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Yup, generally from elected officials who don't want to impound to many of the "wrong" peoples' cars (illegal or not).
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Stay classy, CGF and Calguns. |
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