CHP Begins Crackdown On Out-Of-State Plates

[Kadie]

CHP Begins Crackdown On Out-Of-State Plates

POSTED: 2:31 pm PDT April 20, 2004
UPDATED: 5:15 pm PDT April 20, 2004

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California Highway Patrol is starting a major crackdown on state residents

illegally driving vehicles with out-of-state plates.

The CHP officially kicked off the license plate sting Tuesday. The project is called Californians Help Eliminate

All The Evasive Registration Scofflaws, or CHEATERS. It asks motorists to jot down suspicious tags and enter

them into an anonymous agency Web site.

Officials estimate the state could bring in up to $10 million in additional revenue if the project succeeds.

more... http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/3024122/detail.html

[theoceansnerves]

1. okay

they already have a program where you can report "suspicious" polluting cars to the smog people
now an anonymous website to report "suspicious" tags
and the public goes along with this?
what's next...

[High Sierra Buck]

2. So your stance is black smoke from cars is a'ok?

Many people, well, lets say some people in this state have their cars registered in other states, but are current residents of this state and have been for several years, thus allowing them to drive cars that do not follow the pollution guidelines for the state. I for one am dead set against people who drive cars that have billowing black smoke coming from the tailpipe, and when pulled over, get to use as an excuse or say, well, my car is registered in fricking Wyoming. Why not crack down on these people unless of course you support the idea of dumping extra rich black smoke into the sky.

[Kadie]

3. Cracking down on them is one thing

leaving it to the public and encouraging them to turn in others is something else don't ya think?
check out the link http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/cheaters.html

[High Sierra Buck]

4. Well I guess the CHP could check parking lots of apartments

It is conceivable that the CHP could stake out parking lots of apartment buildings and office buildings to see if the poeple who live there and work their are actually state residents or not.

[Kadie]

5. Why stake them out?

If you pull someone over for a moving violation, then check to see if their car is registered legally or not. Why waste time and money staking out apartments?

Lots of people are breaking laws, even laws that hurt other people, say dealing drugs. But, there are laws against illegal search and seizure. What I am saying is that there are limits as to what the law can do.

I know cars registered illegally help promote smog etc because they do not have to follow the laws of Calif. but this is just another big brother sting that is putting neighbor against neighbor.

[High Sierra Buck]

6. Okay, I'll go with that, now consider this

I'll cave in to your idea of pulling people over only when they do something illegal, and then checking to see if they are state residents or not, and if they have their car registered in another state, because thats what this is all about, having your car regisatered in another state but being a california resident.

So lets just say for sake of argument, and I'm playing devils advocate here, a part I love to play, but humor this for a brief moment;

LEts just say that oh, 50 percent of the cars in california are registered in another state, and those same 50 percent of cars are owned by california residents, people who work and even vote in this state, however, none of them ever commit a minor crime that would result in them being pulled over for a moving violation. How do we then proceed to correct this issue?

[Kadie]

7. I'm not sure

How about when someone goes to get auto insurance? I'm sure they can set it up so a person can only get insurance if there car resitration and drivers license shows them living in the same state?

Or, Remember the days of Highway Safety Checks? Wouldn't that be a pain on busy california higways. LOL

[High Sierra Buck]

8. That would work, or, state hiways checks as we used to do

However, I'm sure someone would jump up and down about those state hiway checks, I remeber when I was young and those hiways checks were common......one would do quick u-turns and everything else when they saw what was going on ahead.

One problem I do see in your suggestion though is that all states would have to agree on that one, it could not be a one state has the rule and the rest do not, otherwise, it could not be enforced.

[slackmaster]

9. CHP has jurisdiction only on highways

Unless of course they are in hot pursuit.

I don't know what the best answer is to preserve due process, Constitutional rights and all that, but there are a lot of registration cheaters out there.

[SemperEadem]

11. the police do that already

it's happened to someone I know who had expired CA tags.

Since the CHP is mainly vehicular in focus, as opposed to police who have a myriad of other things they focus on, I can't see why they just don't put more CHP officers on the streets and highways to do this.

I think it's a great idea... I changed my plates over within 3 weeks of moving here--I can't understand why others from out of state aren't forced to do the same thing. If it is so blatant that you're driving around with '00 as your plate sticker year, then your ass needs to be snatched up on that tip. That's plain trifling.

[High Sierra Buck]

12. I think it gets sticky when your car is registered in another state

Just as in California you can have your car registered in another county and not have to pay for smog II checks or even have cheaper registration fees. All one needs is a relative who lives somewhere else and there ya go.

[slackmaster]

10. Visible smoke clearly (cough) constitutes probably cause

For a police investigation. So does an expired registration tag.

But an out-of-state license (with current registration)??? Could be a tourist. I don't see Constitutional grounds for search based on an anonymous snitch.

OTOH if you notice one of your neighbors, someone who obviously has taken up residence, keeping on out-of-state plate, and you give an account of your observations to the cops, that's a different matter.

[theoceansnerves]

13. right

i'm not making a comment about prosecuting those obvisouly violating smog laws and expired tags, i was just making a comment about the anonymous "rat them out" website.