BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2489 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 16, 2012 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair AB 2489 (Hall) - As Amended: March 27, 2012 SUBJECT : Vehicles: license plates: alteration SUMMARY : Increases the fine for altering a license plate to avoid visual or electronic recognition from $25 to $250. Specifically, this bill : 1)Makes it an infraction, punishable by a fine of not more than $250, to alter or deface a vehicle license plate. 2)Defines "altered" as defacing a license plate to avoid visual or electronic recognition of the license plate or its characters. 3)Defines "defacing" to include painting over or erasing the reflective coating of a license plate. EXISTING LAW : 1)Provides that displaying an altered vehicle license plate is an infraction punishable by a fine of $25. 2)Provides that altering, forging, counterfeiting, or falsifying a certificate of ownership, registration card, certificate, license, or license plate, with the intent to prejudice, damage, or defraud is a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for between 16 months to 3 years and a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $1,000. FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown COMMENTS : According to the author and sponsor, criminals are defacing license plates so that they can avoid being apprehended by law enforcement that uses Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras to read license plates and determine whether or not a vehicle is wanted. This bill would make it an infraction, punishable by a fine of up to $250, to alter a vehicle's license plate to avoid detection by ALPR cameras. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department began deploying ALPR AB 2489 Page 2 cameras in 2007. The cameras are mounted to the light bar on patrol cars so that when the patrol car travels along a roadway, the cameras automatically "read" license plates of all vehicles that enter the camera's view. The license plate numbers that are detected are automatically checked against an on-board computer database of wanted vehicles and the deputy driving the patrol car is instantly notified if a wanted vehicle is detected. To be able to read license plates, the cameras scan and translate the numbers and letters on the license plate using an optical character recognition (OCR) program. The system additionally takes a date and time stamped photograph of vehicles and registers the exact location where the vehicle was photographed, using global positioning system (GPS) technology. These cameras are used extensively throughout the country and currently over 70 mobile ALPR systems and 21 fixed systems are deployed by the Los Angeles Sheriffs' Department. Law enforcement officials claim that these systems have been instrumental in locating stolen vehicles and apprehending criminals. Investigators also use information derived from these systems to determine the whereabouts of stolen vehicles so that they can be traced and located. According to the author, since the deployment of APLR camera systems have been published in the media, many suspects are now altering license plates of wanted vehicles to avoid detection. Simple scratching, lacquering, or painting over the reflective backing of a license plate or tampering with the lettering can make the plate unreadable by the OCR. Currently, the law specifies that a vehicle license plate cannot be displayed if it is altered from its original markings, however, the law does not specifically define actions that constitute altering a license plate nor does it specifically address altering of a license plate to avoid electronic detection. This bill would specifically address the act of defacing a license plate to avoid electronic detection and raise the fine for this act from $25 to $250 bringing the violation in line with similar offenses such as altering or falsifying a license plate, with the intent to prejudice, damage, or defraud, which is a felony that carries a fine of between $500 and $1,000. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support AB 2489 Page 3 Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (Co-Sponsor) Los Angeles Professional Peace Officers' Association (Co-Sponsor) Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs California Fraternal Order of Police Long Beach Police Officers Association Peace Officers Research Association of California Riverside Sheriffs' Association Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs Association Santa Ana Police Officers Association Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by : Victoria Alvarez / TRANS. / (916) 319- 2093