News broke this week that Illinois Representative Justin Slaughter filed a proposed new law (HB4603) that would totally upend traffic and criminal enforcement as it is now known. The law would prohibit police from stopping vehicles based solely on violations of certain enumerated common minor traffic offenses. Further, if police were to make a traffic stop for one of those reasons, any evidence that was obtained (such as drugs, a weapon or proof that the person was intoxicated) would be barred from use at trial or any other legal proceeding. The synopsis of the bill is below:
Just to put item (iii) in perspective, speeding becomes a misdemeanor when a driver is going 26 or more miles per hour over the limit.
This bill is entitled “pretextual stops” and no doubt, in the past, police have used excuses such as a burnt license plate light or failure to use a turn signal within 100 feet of an intersection as a pre-textual basis for a stop, when the real unspoken reason was that the driver was in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time. These pre-textual stops are perfectly legal according to the courts. Of course, most traffic stops are not pre-textual. They are simply traffic code enforcement.
My concern is that this law goes way beyond trying to disincentivize pre-textual stops. Telling officers to look the other way while people are driving up to 24 miles an hour over the speed limit would promote dangerous driving mannerisms and disrespect for the law.
I am further puzzled by the author’s choice of which traffic laws are to be ignored and which ones are not. On the one hand, several of these offenses are connected because they have something to do with a person not having the money to fix something or keep up to date (broken mirror or bumper, defective wiper, expired registration or sticker). These types of offenses have in the past contributed to a never-ending circle of poverty, as people get citations, get their vehicles impounded, get license suspensions and are forever playing catch-up. However, recently, a lot has been done in Illinois to change this. The Secretary of State no longer suspends driver’s licenses for failure to pay fines. The Cook County State’s Attorney no longer prosecutes driving while suspended tickets when the basis for the suspension is due to a financial issue. Illinois has a new law that prohibits traffic stops based on something hanging from a rear view mirror.
On the other hand, this law still allows traffic stops and seizures based on minor offenses such as stopping at an intersection in the crosswalk, rolling through a stop sign, or looking (not texting, just looking) at your cell phone at a red light.
If the law was limited to barring stops or seizures when the stop was solely based on a financially based offense, I would not have such a strong objection. But this law includes speeding and improper lane usage, which are dangerous driving offenses. It also includes excessive tinting. The tinting law was enacted for officer safety so officers can see into vehicles as they approach during a traffic stop. It also includes failure to have a license plate or registration, or having an improper plate or registration, which could be a tip-off that a vehicle was stolen or carjacked.
As a DUI defense attorney, I must acknowledge that passage of this law would certainly result in far fewer DUI arrests and prosecutions. Most DUI stops occur because a driver is pulled over for a minor traffic infraction, such as improper lane usage. Under this law, an officer would not be justified in making a traffic stop. How many more deadly crashes would occur as a result of this law, if enacted?
May I propose a compromise? The Illinois Seat belt law (625 ILCS 5/12-603.1) currently prohibits officers from searching or inspecting a vehicle when that vehicle was stopped only for a seat belt violation. An earlier version of that law (no longer in effect) prohibited police from making stops solely based on a seat belt violation. Why not take that earlier version of the seat belt law, and apply it to certain limited, minor, financially-based, traffic violations, such as a cracked windshield or expired license plate? And leave the rest as it is?
What do you think?
Update: Capitol Fax is reporting that Representative Slaughter is withdrawing the proposed bill after receiving an “overwhelmingly negative” reaction.
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