Drive on suspended license . . . lose car?
CITY COUNCIL | Alderman says impounding vehicle cuts crime
Motorists who dare to drive on suspended or revoked licenses would lose their wheels, under a crackdown proposed by an influential alderman to reduce violent crime and abuses exposed by the Chicago Sun-Times, "Why Are They Driving?" series.
Nearly two years after striking out in his attempt to add driving on a suspended or revoked license to the array of offenses punished by vehicle impoundment, Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Allen (38th) is prepared to try again.
(Sun-Times file)
"Last time, they said there was no room in the auto pounds. There was also concern about using impoundment to punish someone whose license was suspended for auto emissions," Allen said Monday.
"It's time to implement this ordinance. There were some pretty impressive testimony from the Police Department regarding the number of drug arrests and contraband found in vehicles driven by people with suspended or revoked licenses. It could help reduce some of the violence on our streets."
Allen was referring to then-Deputy Chief-of-Patrol Michael McCotter's 2007 claim that one-third of all accidents resulting in deaths or serious injuries involve at least one motorist driving on a suspended or revoked license. The same applies to 25 percent of all street corner drug arrests, McCotter said then.
The City Council's Police and Traffic Committees will meet Wednesday to reconsider Allen's ordinance.
It would allow offenders to reclaim their vehicles, only after paying a $1,000 administrative penalty on top of towing and storage fees.
In the "Why Are They Driving?" series, the Sun-Times watched suspended drivers leave courthouses and drive away--even after promising a judge that they would not drive because their license was suspended for everything from driving under the influence to piling up too many parking tickets.
Vehicle impoundment is the city's catch-all penalty for 13 offenses ranging from drunken driving, fly-dumping and prostitution to loud radio playing, drag racing and drug and curfew violations. Driving on a suspended or revoked license would become the 14th.
The last time the Police Committee considered the impoundment penalty, Assistant Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Jim Conlon warned that city auto pounds were bursting at the seams and, "This could push us over the limit."
Asked Monday whether that was still the case, Conlon said, "That's all changed." He did not elaborate.
Every year, 25,000 motorists get tickets for driving on suspended or revoked licenses in Chicago.
"When we're balancing shootings and murders and gangs and drugs on one side of the scale and finding space for a bad guy's car on the other side, we know what side of the scale is more important. We'll find a place" to put impounded vehicles, Allen said.