That link don’t show the car that you are talking about.
lol … funny story … even better, you are absolutely right, they can’t have it both ways.
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My dad used to tell a similar story, happened to him as a teenager, crime was being “overly boisterous” at the local dance. Likely alcohol was involved … lol … His strategy, he tells the JP, "ok, then put me in jail’. JP thought about it, decided the cost of jail space/meals/etc better spent on higher priorities, freed on personal promise to show up on later court date. Which he did.
Of course wouldn’t be a reason to be taken to jail. The issue when someone is stopped for something like that, and driver’s documents showed a bench warrant in the database, then what happens? Sounds like from the comments above your car will be impounded and towed, you’ll be taken to jail and informed you have to pay the full bail in cash, refundable (which you likely won’t be carrying that much cash, so that method not an option), pay a bail-bond outfit a non-refundable 10% (presumably this doesn’t require cash, credit car ok probably) either one of those two, or go to jail. If you say you want to go to jail rather than pay the bail bondsman 10% fee, your impounded car will accrue impound charges daily, and may well be sold in a few weeks out from under you. If guilty of a crime, many would say it serves you right, “if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” adage, but something like this could be easily caused by a simple clerical error. The database maintenance is done by public employees after all, so plenty of chances for errors there, and the police officer doing the querying could easily make a mistake or typo as well.
The radio talk show’s topic was whether with a case like this, provided the crime for the arrest warrant wasn’t violent, for example unpaid parking tickets, should the driver be required to pay a bond at all? Or should they just be ordered to return for a later court appearance?
If we assume that the vast majority of police are basically honest, intelligent human beings capable of making rational judgements, then I don’t see this as a problem. You’re pulled over for speeding, they pull up your record in their car, nothing there, you remain reasonably respectful, get you ticket or warning and go on your way with the assumption that you’ll assume your responsibility to go to court or pay the fine.
On the other hand if your record shows a half dozen unpaid tickets or worse, ignored Summons or outstanding Warrants, it’s a reasonable assumption is that your won’t assume your responsibility.
My point is that although no system and nobody is perfect, if BOTH parties simply live up to their responsibilities it generally works out pretty well.
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A system that “works out pretty well” is ok as long it works. When it doesn’t, not so much. I can think of a few ways to improve the fairness of the bail situation for minor & non-violent arrest warrants, situations not using the bail-bond system, that the court currently requires the full bail amount in hard cash before release:
- Allow bail payment by credit card with no fee
- Allow the arrested to go to their bank (perhaps supervised) to bring back hard cash or cashier’s check.
- Allow arrested to personally pledge their car’s title as bail payment
- Allow arrested to personally pledge real estate they own as bail payment
- If arrest warrant is later proved invalid, pay the arrested $750/hour for their inconvenience.
- Or the obvious, release on the arrested own’s personal pledge, recognizance
Or just have a license,proof of insurance, current tags, and pay any fines. As a young kid in about 1968 or so, we were coming out of the drive in and I got stopped immediately. The deputy saw me drinking out of a can and thought it might be beer. Verified our clothes were on, and it was coke, and the car was clean, no problem.
Before or after that, can’t remember, I was on a date in the big city where she was from. It was about midnight and we stopped at a red light. Pitch black, no one around, so after waiting for about two minutes thought the light was broken and proceeded through it. Well there was someone hiding in the dark and he pulled me over. After checking my license and my explanation (kid from a small town) he let me go, no problem.
I try to stay legal and have paid a few fines over the years but never arrested.
I agree that the “Cash Bail” system isn’t perfect but in most arrests for traffic violations the driver has already proven that they are not a responsible individual.
i.e. A ticket is basically a promise to pay the fine or go to Court to plead your case and then you’re done. And if you do decide to go to Court I’ve seen Judges routinely practically bend over backwards to give the person a break for emergencies and hardship.
On the other hand, the Legal System and Judges in particular have absolutely no patience for folks who basically break their promise and flip them the bird.
Extend credit or accept a pledge or a another promise from a proven deadbeat? Would you?
And just the thought of police frog marching citizens to the bank to withdraw their money might keep me up at night!
Admittedly, given the uncertainties, it’s a compromise.
Do you agree that when the system fails – since you admit it might — the person who is arrested for no fault of their own be paid $750/hour for their inconvenience?
In the past, the county where I live will release drivers with outstanding moving violations on recognizance. Two years ago, they stopped issuing warrants for outstanding traffic violations. A person can’t be arrested in my area for parking tickets.
I know of an acquaintance with more than ten open traffic tickets spanning 8 years, driving without a driver’s license, no insurance, speeding. One of the speeding tickets is for 31 to 40 mph over the limit.
I see no reason to lobby for concierge service for traffic demons.
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@Nevada_545 it’s the same here where I live, someone decided that most of the people in that situation are already in enough financial trouble, and that fining them or impounding their car just puts more hardship on them.
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Concur, imo there should be cooperation from system for minor offenses, but not for major offenses or repeat offenders. Sounds like Las Vegas (and It’s Me territory) is moving in the correct direction anyway.
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I’m sorry but I disagree.
I’m not a huge fan of police and I’ve encountered situations where police have been in my opinion overly zelous but the fact is that they have to make immediate decisions and if they make a “wrong decision” that has repercussions, it’s their ass on the line.
i.e. “The guy had 15 point’s, a suspended license and 2 outstanding warrants and you let him drive off to hit a 10 year old kid?”
In my Liberal State we’ve established reasonable proceedures and laws to protect the Cops and the Public from those few knuckleheads who are slow learners and feel that the law doesn’t apply to them so if it means a short stay in the County jail or a longer stay in the Gawd Awful Pen, so be it and let the Judge decide.
Without traffic ticket warrants in my county, drivers can continue to break traffic laws without fear of being arrested. After 3 years the court turns the case over to a 3rd party collection agency, 5 years later the penalty can be determined to be uncollectible. Drivers lose their driver’s license but continue to drive. The do-gooders that called for a change in the system did not think this through.
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No it’s not, It’s the wrong direction, Read @Nevada_545 post, same thing here.
Knowing the law won’t do anything to you, or impound your car, why should they get a drivers license or insurance or current tabs.
Since the big dust up, police in the Minneapolis metro area have been restricted from stopping cars with minor issues light lights out or expired registration. Problem is this has been a pretty good way to find people with warrants out. Last one was wanted for armed robbery and failed to show up for court. Dead now after fleeing.
Fair points above. Like I say, Crime and Punishment, it’s a compromise. I don’t subscribe to the “break the law? who cares? continue on your way” philosophy. Most folks – even here in so-called “liberal” Calif — don’t either. The San Francisco DA was recently recalled in a vote of the citizens of that great city for failing to aggressively pursue those who commit serious & violent crimes, and repeat offenders. I didn’t participate in that vote, but I would have voted to recall him too, based on the interviews with him and his detractors. He came across as defensive and while his rhetorical diversions may work well in court, not a good look for a DA under public review.
Folks definitely should either pay their traffic & parking fines, or show up at the court date to explain why they shouldn’t. Just like they should pay their taxes, in full. But drivers can get fines and not even realize it. For example, you get a parking ticket, placed on your windshield, wind blows it away, somebody takes it, etc. Don’t even know you got a ticket. IMO situations like this, if the driver later get stopped for minor reason, officer discovers the unpaid parking ticket, the officer would give them another ticket, ordering them to appear at a scheduled court date. As long as they appeared, and paid the fine (if any) done, no arrest. If they didn’t appear then the next time it happened the officer would do the full arrest procedure, impound the car, take the offender to the jail. In other words, car impounded and being taken to jail is for major offenses & for repeat offenders.
You might say “well, you shouldn’t have parked illegally in the first place”. Fair enough, but you may not know it was illegal to park there. For example, you’ve been parking in the same place for years, white curb, legal parking space; one day you notice you have a ticket on your windshield. Sure enough the curb is now red. Why? It’s just been painted red that day. You have red paint on your tires, curb painted red while your car was parked there. Should you get a parking ticket for that? And if you didn’t notice the ticket, it blew away, should you have your car impounded and taken to jail the next time you are stopped? Stopped just b/c you are driving down the road? Seems un- American.
You won’t be arrested for parking tickets as seen in old movies. Parking tickets don’t go through the court system but can be attached to your vehicle registration preventing renewal.
Well Whoopi that that the guy that refused to prosecute crimes was voted out, but the question is how he and others were voted in in the first place? We’re they so misinformed that they didn’t know who was backing them and why? Oops we made a mistake. My bad. Prevention is a lot cheaper than correction.