Inspired by post #8 in this thread, why do they arrest for a suspended or unlicensed driver? It’s essentially a traffic infraction, but they stick you in a cell with arrests for drug/violent crimes, often crowded enough so that there’s no room to even sleep on the floor.
Possible reasons I can think of are:
Collection of county/city/local court surcharges?
Federal reimbursement for people seen in court?
‘Get tough’ on crime push by local pols?
Repeat suspension/unlicensed driver infractions?
Of all of them the only thing I can think of as warranting a stay in jail is the last one ----if you’re stretching it. To be honest, (especially in the Bronx), I’d think they wouldn’t want to clog up the main courts with this sort of thing, and it would be better lumped in with DMV appearances like you’d get with a speeding ticket.
I believe the arrest was for driving while the license was suspended. What other options do they have? If your license was suspended, and yet you continue to drive, TPTB need to up the ante.
And there’s that little chance that the reason the license was suspended was that they’re a danger on the road. Not to mention that the suspended license is usually discovered while they’re being pulled over for something else. So they’re not even being careful when they know they’re driving illegally.
There is a need to really drive home (heh) the concept that driving is a privilige, not a right.
I have been the victim of an unlicensed, uninsured, unregistered motorist. Spent 8 weeks in the hospital, 1 month in a wheelchair, about 6 weeks on crutches and 10 years walking with a cane because some bonehead had been ticketed for no license and yet kept driving!
We as a society have decided to allow people to operate motor vehicles but require a minmun amount of responsiblity to go with doing so. A liscense is step one, it shows that you have a basic grasp of the rules of the road.
If you’re not at risk of being thrown in jail, why then we’d have many more folks just driving around with unsafe cars, no skills and no insurance I suspect.
Counter-anecdote – I was stoppped driving with no license (just a learners permit) on an uninsured, unregistered motorcycle. The cop handed me a shit-load of citations, and called a tow truck that I had to pay for, but I left under my own steam.
True. It is only a **little ** chance that your license was suspended for being a danger to the road. My anecdote involves having my license suspended for failing to pay a **parking ** ticket in Yonkers, of which I was unaware. (no arrest, didn’t drive while suspended, went to court and paid ticket, late penalty fees, court fees, and suspension fees)
I fully acknowledge my stupidity, and it cost me (in fact my lawyer pointed out to the judge that I’d paid more in legal fees than the fines of all the tickets combined.) I was just pointing out that not all suspended-license stops end in incarceration. It may be that the fact that I was on a motorcyle influenced things – traditionally cops give bikers a fair amount of leeway on the theory that we are crazy people who typically only hurt ourselves, not others, in an accident
No, no, no. The license was suspended or revoked for a traffic infraction. Driving without a valid license is saying “I don’t have to obey the law,” and arresting the person thus driving is saying “Oh yes you do.” It’s not violating a traffic rule - it’s a refusal to accept the legal authority of the state. The state will win.
I have heard that theory posited on this very board. There is some sense to that idea. I also appreciate the idea that:
but I wonder if the law makes a distinction for licenses revoked for administrative reasons, such as non-payment of parking tickets, which seems like a minor thing to be tossed in the clink for, especially given how poor the MVA can be about notification of such things.
My oldest sister had an accident where she was hit by a driver with a suspended license. By the time everything had been sorted out, it turned out that my sister’s license had actually expired a few months previously(she had just neglected to renew it) so neither of them had valid licenses. Neither of them were arrested.
OK - I’m trying to put this together with your OP. You weren’t arrested, another poster was. Got it.
Your license was suspended for one parking ticket, therefore most people with suspended licenses got that way with parking tickets? I don’t have data to put up against yours, just my own anecdotes. I’ve known four people with suspended licenses and none of them were suspended for parking tickets. It was speeding, DUI, and 2 x too old to drive safely.
Here, they don’t try to match parking tickets to driver’s licenses. They just add the cost of old tickets to the car’s registration fees. So you wouldn’t be arrested for driving with a suspended license, you’d get a fix-it ticket for driving without your registration stickers.
Other posters have said that the arrest is not automatic. I’d buy that. I’m guessing it depends on the jurisdiction, the phase of the moon, and how bad the violation was that got the suspended driver pulled over in the second place. Would the cops have any way of knowing, at the time of the precipitating violation, why the license was suspended? Even if they could, I can only work up so much sympathy for someone who is driving badly on a suspended license.
since this thread seems to be anecdotal in nature, I’ll add my two cents that I heard from a friend who is a cop. Most of the arrests for this offense are due to the above stated “thumbing your the nose at the law”. The fact is that MOST people on suspended permits got that way from DUI, Accident or drug infractions. If you turn up driving erratically, and have a suspended license, It’s an excuse to tow your vehicle and go fishing for a better charge. FWIW, he says that in his dept if they don’t find anything, they don’t hold the offenders and just impound the vehicles and send them home with a court date.
Speeding while one has a valid operator’s license is a choice to disregard the law. If the license has already been suspended/revoked, the choice isn’t available.
The most common cause for an arrest when stopped while unlicensed is because the fine/penalty has not been paid. The bail is often the amount owed from the previous infraction.
Perhaps “obey the law” was a poor choice to convey my point.
Break the rules of the road (speed, park illegally, etc.) and the typical penalty is a fine. In paying the fine you recognize the authority of the state to regulate driving. The authorities trust you’ll modify your behavior to fit the rules, and allow you to continue driving.
Break the rules severely (e.g. hit and run) or repeatedly (accumulate too many “points”) and the typical penalty is loss of license. The authorities do not feel you should be allowed to drive for a while. In not driving, you recognize the state’s authority in the matter.
Drive anyway, and you’ve crossed the line to actively flouting authority. It is not in the state’s best interests to allow that. Since fines and loss of privilege haven’t kept your behavior in line, they go to the next step - loss of freedom. Hence, you’re arrested.
So in sum, looking at the original question (why do they arrest for a suspended or unlicensed driver? It’s essentially a traffic infraction), driving without a license is a different (higher) level of offense than a traffic infraction. A traffic violation is “you did it wrong.” Driving sans license is “you’re not supposed to be doing it at all.”
