BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 2489
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Hall
VERSION: 6/15/12
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 26, 2012
SUBJECT:
Obstruction or alteration of license plates
DESCRIPTION:
This bill prohibits a person from altering or covering a license
plate in order to avoid law enforcement reading the license
plate with a camera.
ANALYSIS:
Under existing law, when the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
issues license plates for a vehicle, those plates must be
securely fastened to the vehicle so they do not swing, be
mounted in a position to be clearly visible, and maintained in a
condition so as to be clearly legible. Typically, a driver or
vehicle owner cited for displaying an altered plate receives a
fix-it ticket. To resolve this fix-it ticket, a person must
show a peace officer that the vehicle in question now has an
unaltered license plate, have the peace officer sign the ticket,
and then return that ticket with $25 to the court.
Existing law also expressly prohibits installing on a vehicle
any casing, shield, frame, border, product, or other device that
obstructs or impairs the reading or recognition of a license
plate by an electronic device that state or local law
enforcement, a toll collection facility, or the state's smog
check program uses. A citation for violating this provision
carries a fine of $25, which with additional assessments results
in a total penalty of $194. It is also illegal to sell such a
product and existing law imposes a fine of $250 for each sale of
such a product, which results in a total penalty of $1080 per
sale.
This bill :
AB 2489 (HALL) Page 2
1.Prohibits a person from operating a vehicle with any casing,
shield, frame, border, product or other device that obstructs
or impairs the reading or recognition of a license plate by an
electronic device that state or local law enforcement, a toll
collection facility, or the state's smog check program uses.
2.Prohibits a person from erasing the reflective coating of,
painting over, or altering a license plate in order to avoid
visual or electronic capture of the plate by law enforcement.
3.Prescribes a penalty of up to $250, which with assessments is
a total penalty of $1,080, for violation of either of these
prohibitions.
COMMENTS:
Purpose . The author introduced this bill in response to a
growing problem in Southern California of individuals scratching
or lacquering over the reflective white backing of vehicle
license plates to avoid detection by law enforcement's cameras
and scanners that read license plates.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department began deploying
automatic license plate recognition 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 on-board system then checks the plates against a
database of stolen vehicles, vehicles used in crimes, and wanted
persons associated with those vehicles. When the camera spots
any such vehicle, the on-board system instantly notifies the
deputy driving the patrol car. 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
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
technology.
Law enforcement agencies throughout the country use these
cameras, and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department reports that
it currently has over 70 mobile license plate reader systems and
21 fixed systems deployed in Los Angeles County. Law
enforcement officials claim that these systems have been
instrumental in locating stolen vehicles and apprehending
AB 2489 (HALL) Page 3
criminals. Investigators also use information derived from
these systems to determine the whereabouts of stolen vehicles so
that they can be traced and located.
Proponents report that criminals have become aware of this
technology and are altering license plates to defeat it. The
author introduced this bill to address this issue by increasing
the base fine for this act from $25 to $250, which increases the
total penalty from $194 to $1080.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 76 - 0
Appr: 17 - 0
Trans: 14 - 0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 20,
2012)
SUPPORT: Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs
California Fraternal Order of Police
California Peace Officers Association
California Public Parking Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
Long Beach Police Officers Association
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Los Angeles Police Protective League
Los Angeles Professional Peace Officers'
Association
Peace Officers Research Association of California
Riverside Sheriffs' Association
Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs Association
Santa Ana Police Officers Association
OPPOSED: None received.