OCRegister.com
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The electronic transponder on the dashboard – used to bill tollway users – is inactive. The Camry’s owners, airport traffic officer Rudolph Duplessis and his wife, Loretta, have never had a toll road account, officials say. Their Toyota is one of 996,716 vehicles registered to motorists who are affiliated with 1,800 state and local agencies and who are allowed to shield their addresses under the Confidential Records Program. An Orange County Register investigation has found that the program, designed 30 years ago to protect police from criminals, has been expanded to cover hundreds of thousands of public employees – from police dispatchers to museum guards – who face little threat from the public. Their spouses and children can get the plates, too.
The Register found that the confidential plate program shields these motorists in ways most of us can only dream about:
•Vehicles with protected license plates can run through dozens of intersections controlled by red light cameras and breeze along the 91 toll lanes with impunity.
•Parking citations issued to vehicles with protected plates are often dismissed because the process necessary to pierce the shield is too cumbersome.
•Some patrol officers let drivers with protected plates off with a warning because the plates signal that the drivers are “one of their own” or related to someone who is.
There is an old adage that my father used too often, “Do as I say, not as I do”. It didn’t work for me then either.
Apparently, Wisconsin doesn’t have these plates. My dad used to be a cop, and I’ve gotten pulled over.
I would go over to the dark side (law enforcement) for one of these plates.
“Power Corrupts …”
#1: Wisconsin has had a couple of cops in the past year write tickets to themselves! They’re not letting anyone off 🙂
Well it is wackyfornia.
I want 2 plates please.
The strange thing is, the 91 lanes can get your VIN number with a high speed camera. Doe that have the same protection?
In NJ these plates are only available to Municipal, County, State and Federal owned vehicles only. And then only to undercover law enforcement vehicles that need such protection.
The solution:
Expand the Confidential Records Program even further: to cover everyone. Then, since no one will be allowed access to anyone’s records, we can’t stop collecting the information. Think of the savings!
“In NJ these plates are only available to Municipal, County, State and Federal owned vehicles only. And then only to undercover law enforcement vehicles that need such protection.”
… and everyone else carries a PBA card.
I’m not your friend, guy.
The story is misleading. No special plates are issued to private individuals of any agencies, etc. Confidentiality is provided only to employees and family of law enforcement, etc… All that means is the address is replaced by the Agency name on information requests from DMV – no special issued plates, ID, etc exist. No special consideration, etc. Any non observance of laws or overlooking violations is at the level of the individual officer, not a result of any special privilege. I know that in departments I have been involved with, it would not have made any difference and people would have not received any more consideration than anyone else.
Again, no special plates or ID – only way to determine this would be to run the license of the person or vehicle through dmv and see it on the information. This normally is only done if there is a violation or investigation of some type involved.
Anyone observed violating traffic or any other laws are subject to the consequences prescribed by law. I am sure there have been instances of officers letting some people off with warnings that had this status, but also am sure they have done the same for other citizens at times also. And, this is a decision made at the officers level, not from DMV or a agency.
This is the case for California, can not speak for other areas.
#11
> Confidentiality is provided only to employees
> and family of law enforcement
…and anyone working for or related to someone working at any agency with the same agreement like museum security guards.
> Any non observance of laws or
> overlooking violations
> is at the level of the individual officer, not
> a result of any special privilege
Officially that is true. However, clearly the reality is far different as evidence by the numerous people thumbing their nose at the tolls and the officers and parking attendants that simply let people with special plates go.
> I know that in departments I have
> been involved
> with, it would not have made any
> difference and
> people would have not received any more
> consideration than anyone else.
Is that kind of like Deputies claiming that if they get pulled over by CHP officers that the fact they are a cop does not change whether they get a ticket? Yeah, that is probably true about 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time, the fact that they are a cop gets them out of the ticket. I know for example, that my wife used to have a LA Fireman’s sticker on her car and because of that got out of more than a couple of tickets.
If officer information is good enough to be protected then so is that of the average person. They simply do away with the “special” protection certain people’s information and implement it for everyone as they apparently already have.