BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



           ------------------------------------------------------------ 
          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 2489|
          |Office of Senate Floor Analyses   |                         |
          |1020 N Street, Suite 524          |                         |
          |(916) 651-1520         Fax: (916) |                         |
          |327-4478                          |                         |
           ------------------------------------------------------------ 
           
                                         
                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 2489
          Author:   Hall (D)
          Amended:  8/22/12 in Senate
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE :  7-1, 6/26/12
          AYES:  DeSaulnier, Gaines, Harman, Lowenthal, Pavley, 
            Rubio, Wyland
          NOES:  Simitian
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Kehoe

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE  :  Senate Rule 28.8
           
          ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  76-0, 5/14/12 (Consent) - See last page 
            for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Obstruction or alteration of license plates

           SOURCE  :     Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
                      Los Angeles Professional Peace Officers 
          Association
                      Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department


           DIGEST  :    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.

           Senate Floor Amendments  of 8/22/12 add double-jointing 
          language with AB 2679 (Assembly Transportation Committee) 
          and resolve chaptering conflicts with SB 1144 (Strickland).
                                                           CONTINUED





                                                               AB 2489
                                                                Page 
          2


           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 $1,080 
          per sale.

          This bill:

          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.


                                                           CONTINUED





                                                               AB 2489
                                                                Page 
          3

          4. Contains double-jointing language with AB 2679 (Assembly 
             Transportation Committee).

           Comments
           
           Purpose of the bill  .  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 County 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 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, 

                                                           CONTINUED





                                                               AB 2489
                                                                Page 
          4

          which increases the total penalty from $194 to $1,080.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  Yes   
          Local:  Yes

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  8/22/12)

          Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (co-source)
          Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (co-source)
          Los Angeles Professional Peace Officers' Association 
          (co-source)
          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 Police Protective League
          Peace Officers Research Association of California
          Riverside Deputy Sheriffs Association
          Riverside Sheriffs' Association
          Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs Association
          Santa Ana Police Officers Association


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  76-0, 5/14/12
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Beall, Bill 
            Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, 
            Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, 
            Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson, 
            Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Beth 
            Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Grove, 
            Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger 
            Hernández, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, 
            Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, 
            Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande, 
            Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino, 
            Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Wagner, 
            Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Atkins, Fletcher, Perea, Valadao


          JJA:m  8/23/12   Senate Floor Analyses 


                                                           CONTINUED





                                                               AB 2489
                                                                Page 
          5

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

                                ****  END  ****
          









































                                                           CONTINUED