Appeal unlicensed driver ruling

Appeal unlicensed driver ruling

Saturday, May 19, 2001

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

A King County judge has taken away the vehicle suspension "stick" in Seattle's "carrot-and-stick" policy for those who insist on driving with suspended licenses. But unable to use impounding, the city may have to resort to a bigger -- but less effective -- stick: incarceration.

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Trickey ruled Tuesday that before impounding the car belonging to someone believed to be driving with a suspended license, Seattle police must first take "reasonable" steps to find a relative or friend of the driver to take the car.

That would leave the city's impound law essentially toothless. Unless jailed on the driving- while-suspended charge, the driver could presumably be back driving the car -- still without a valid license -- within hours.

Without the deterrent of losing the vehicle to an impound lot, where is the motivation to regain one's license?

"We'd be going back to business as usual, which means locking people up instead of impounding cars," says City Attorney Mark Sidran, outspoken champion of the impound program.

Impounding cars instead of jailing people has been a major factor in reducing jail bookings by 37 percent since 1998, according to a report prepared by Sidran for the Seattle City Council. And in contrast to critics' claims that the impound policy had racially disparate affects, driving-while-suspended jail bookings against African-Americans have dropped by almost half.

The reduction in jail bookings is attributable to both the "stick" of vehicle impound and the "carrot" of more court and community help for those trying to reinstate their driver's licenses. In almost all driving-while-suspended vehicle impound cases, the license has been suspended for failure to respond to or pay fines for traffic violations (not parking tickets).

The "carrot" part of the program would still be viable but less effective without the impound "stick."

Sidran is right to appeal the ruling. The community is not well served by having unlicensed drivers either behind the wheel or behind bars.

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