I called the MVA last week to find out what the story was with my registration after getting pulled over in New Jersey. Turns out there was a problem with my registration.
When Danielle wrecked her car back in October and it was totaled the tags did not get returned to the MVA, so as far as they know the car is out there on the road with no insurance. That policy was cancelled and we each got new ones when she moved out. That car was in both of our names though, so they have flagged both of us for an insurance violation. I got some paperwork from Danielle about the accident so I could go clear it up at the MVA last week. I was going to go Friday, but wasn't feeling great due to all this pollen and needed a rest day after the last couple of weeks, so I decided to wait until today.
Wouldn't you know I got pulled over on the way to church yesterday morning. Same deal as in NJ, no moving violation, the officer just decided to run my plates and bingo I've got registration problems. I saw him pull out of a parking lot and get behind me and as soon as I noticed the radio to his mouth I knew I was in trouble. He pulled me over and told me I've got a suspended registration. I started to explain to him about Danielle's wrecked car and how I'm taking care of that and he say, "no that's not the issue." It turns out that there were two things wrong. I also missed my emissions test while I was out of commission last year. He was very nice, let me go with a warning (after running my license to see if I had any outstanding warrants).
So this morning I went to VEIP and got my emissions testing done and then went to the MVA to straighten out the other issue. They told me everything would be cleared up, but they wouldn't take the papers from me. I have to get the police to fax them directly to the MVA for them to accept them and then its all straight.
I am now very curious how many times my plates have been run when I didn't have registration issues. Apparently this has been allowed by numerous state courts. Officers call it "BINGO HUNTING" (funny, I didn't know this term when wrote that paragraph above). So maybe they didn't profile me, but I'd love to see some evidence as to the cars and drivers who are most often targeted by this tactic. My guess is that a soccer mom in a minivan is much less likely to have her plates run than me.
It may have been upheld by several courts, but to me it doesn't seem constitutional. Fourth Amendment and all that... The argument is that the tags are out there in public view and you are on a public street, so they can check them without cause. That may be, but it seems that there should be some probable cause component for them to search the computer records. Otherwise, how do we know whether the police are using this tool appropriately or not?
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3 comments:
I would imagine that the police bingo a lot of people now a days, because it's so quick and easy using computers. I seriously doubt that you're being profiled. In the years since you've had your dreadlocks and bumper sticker laden car how many times have you been stopped? Twice in 10-15 years is not much, heck, I've been stopped more than that and I don't have any bumper stickers! My guess is that they're checking the vans and suvs of the soccer moms too. Peace.
They may be running your tags too, but we'll probably never know unless there is some master log of which tags were checked and some way to determine what the reason the police officer picked that car was.
I've only been stopped twice by this method, but how many times did they run my plates but couldn't pull me over because my registration didn't have issues?
I'd like to run an experiment where soccer moms have tag issues like mine and see how long they can be on the road before getting stopped as opposed to cars with political bumper stickers, or someone that is a minority, or someone in an older car etc. My guess is that the police would be using some form of profiling and not just "randomly" running tags without consideration for other factors that make them suspicious, but with no justifiable reason to stop the car without applying this method.
It would be an interesting experiment. Maybe an idea for 20/20?
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