Responding to concerns about equity and disproportionate enforcement, Seattle Police will no longer make stops over traffic issues like expired tabs or riding a bicycle without a helmet.
In a decision announced heading into the MLK Day weekend, Chief Adrian Diaz said the new direction “de-prioritizingnon-criminal, low-risk public safety traffic violations” comes after discussions involving “a multi-disciplinary working group” convened by the Office of Inspector General to review ” city, county and state ordinances; and emerging reforms in other cities.”
“These violations do not have a direct connection to the safety of other individuals on the roads, paths, or sidewalks,” Diaz wrote in his letter to the OIG advising on his decision to follow some of the working group’s recommendations. “We know there are also reasons for concern that these violations may disproportionately fall on those who are unable to meet the financial requirements set forth by law.”
Under the new directive, SPD will no longer make stops based solely on expired tabs, improperly displayed license plates, or technical violations like items hanging from rear-view mirrors or cracked windshields. Bicycle helmet violations will also no longer be enforced — though, like the rest, could be part of secondary enforcement if there is another primary violation cited.
Equipment violations like burned out tail lights will continue to be enforced, Diaz said, due to safety concerns. The working group had included a recommendation that all equipment violations also be deprioritized.
The enforcement change follows evidence of hugely disproportionate enforcement of these traffic laws in the city. Crosscut reported in 2020 that nearly half of Seattle’s helmet citations were handed out to homeless people. Philadelphia, meanwhile, became the first major U.S. city to prohibit the traffic stops in October due to studies showing police target Black drivers at disproportionately higher rates. Diaz’s move, for now, puts the department out in front of any similar legislative effort in Seattle.
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Thank god!! Rich people are still going to pay their license fees and the poor are generally kept poor with all kinds of extra worthless tickets on top of paying their licese fees. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!
He didn’t say they wouldn’t be giving out tickets for expired tabs on cars parked on the street.
LOL
Folks need to understand that State Patrols and our neighboring cities PD will keep applying the law. So, I doubt this decision will help folks avoid renewing their tab and paying the hefty renewal fees (that were largely voted and/or supported by the Seattle City Council). To truly help families, why not drastically reduce the tab renewal fees?
Why not scrap sales tax and fees and go back to taxing on income so CEOs and directors pay their fair share?
Yeah this isn’t about making it easier for low income people, but it’s still good:. It removes SPD from situations where they’re documented to generate racist outcomes.
As to your latter question about why not reduce tabs: because doing so would harm transit, which hurts low income people even more disproportionately than car tabs. A better question for you to ask is how to stop Olympia from forcing us to make impossible decisions like that.
I’m driving down the road and spot a car with (dead tailight/expired license/missing mirror, your choice). With tinted windows, there is no way to determine what race/sex/age the driver is. If a Policeman pulls him over, at that point it is totally “colorblind”. So how is the stop (and resulting warning or “fix-it” ticket) racist? Short answer: It is not.
The police can “profile” vehicles in poor neighborhoods with or without seeing the vehicle occupants. Are you saying that the police are too stupid to know how to profile drivers based on the vehicles they are driving?
The bigger question is how is ticketing for ticky-tacky offences “Protecting and Serving”? If a police officer’s primary role is public safety, then most of the ticky-tacky stuff needs to stop.
If the role of the police is “generating revenue”, on the other hand, then sure… keep writing those tickets.
So you cash determine race by what model car someone is driving? That sounds racist to me..
That is exactly what Tim Eyman has long wanted. Are you an Eyman supporter?
I didn’t even know who Tim Eyman was :) That said, to fund public transportation (which I use everyday), I’m sure there’re other alternatives than having heft renewal tab fees or higher sales tax, which, we all know, are disproportionally affecting low income and middle-class families.
If you can’t afford license fees, insurance and a valid license then you can’t afford to drive a car!!!
I get the distinct impression lately that I could drive around this city with no plates at all doing 50 mph and never get pulled over. This is just more of the hands off attitude fir law enforcement. Why have a requirement to register cars at all if that requirement will not be enforced? And why would I bother registering my vehicle if noone is enforcing registration laws!?
Sounds like you need to have a convo with yourself about morality and ethics. Do you only do the right thing because someone might bust you if you don’t?
I like your solution. Compliance with each government regulation becomes an individual moral and ethical decision about whether it is the “right thing.”
Since you imply you would always do the “right thing” even in the absence of government rule enforcement, are you also suggesting you’re confident that everyone else (except Glenn, apparently) will make correct decisions as well? (Given the particulars of their personal situations, natch.)
Agree! Now, more irresponsible people will not renew their car tabs than are already doing so. I wonder how many of them also go without car insurance?
Rather than pulling cars over, has SPD/DOL considered using dashboard cameras to simply tail and photograph cars’ plates with expired tabs and then mail tickets to violators’ homes? Methinks it’d be quicker, cheaper, safer, and might even result in wider compliance on keeping car registrations current.
Good thought, but I’m not sure the cost is worth it…dol has a list of all the people with expired tabs already.
I fail to see how paying a six-figure-salaried officer to spend 15-30 minutes pulling over and writing a ticket to *one* expired-tab violator could be considered more “worth it” than having the same officer snap/upload digital photos of possibly 4-5 (or more) violators’ license plates encountered while driving his/her round for that same 30 minutes. Maybe the face-to-face pullover is a relic from the pre-digital, pre-Internet days, who knows.
But today, we have automated, computerized systems like Good-To-Go, where taking license-plate photos *and* mailing every non-GTG driver a bill for a mere $5-$10 is considered cost-effective. DOL could replicate a GTG-like system for car-tab violators. Even more, I could see costs dropping as a result, not just from catching more violators, but by motivating more people to pay their car tabs on time to avoid an increased likelihood of getting caught.
Then again, since as you indicated that the DOL databases already know who’s past due on their registration fees, perhaps the DOL could do away with tabs altogether (along with the police enforcing compliance) and just replicate the county’s property-tax system — i.e. apply a percentage-penalty for every month delinquent on car-tab fees; then if nothing’s paid after a year, impound the vehicle at violator’s residence to sell at auction (similar to the county foreclosing a house after 3 years of no property-tax payments). And think of the $$$ and time saved on having to print silly little sticky-tabs, to boot!
Also, many vehicles aren’t licensed at their (the vehicle owners) correct or current address, so the penalties would just get compounded, and at an almost illegal rate of interest, in the end, exacerbating said issue, not adding to a solution.
I thought said issue was reducing face-to-face confrontations between SPD and motorists that could turn ugly and unnecessarily dangerous over non-safety violations. Going the dashboard-camera route would do just that, IMO.
Now if said issue is justifying evasion of excessive DOL car-tab fees and the excessive DOL penalties that follow, *that’s* a different ball of wax (and not one I saw being addressed in this article).
Per this article, improperly displayed plates is no longer an enforceable offense. Smart move now is to tape some cardboard over your plates and start crossing the toll bridges for free.
Cross those bridges and they’ll still bust you in Bellevue, where selective enforcement of laws is not so obviously in vogue.
Those are state or federal highways. WSP will definitely still cite your azz on I-5, SR99, SR520, I-90, etc.
What a joke (and soon to be another right-wing talking point).
At this point, you gotta wonder if Seattle is deliberately trying to give Fox news material to bash “Democrat-run cities” with.
This is legitimate progress for our city. These “traffic violations” are why people call the police tax collectors. Also this over burdens people who are treading water financially and then you continue to build the ticket and take away their car. These non-safety related tickets are oppressive.
Michael, in most societies people pay for services they are provided. In this case, the use of roads and bridges are the service, and we pay for them through licensing and registration fees, on top of tolls if we use them. The lack of enforcement here is telling drivers that you no longer have to pay for a community good you are using. If you don’t want to use the roads, don’t buy/drive a car. There are tons of other options, including public transit (which by the way also use the roads), biking (also using roads), and light rail.
If a poor person commits a traffic violation (like speeding) and they are pulled over with expired tabs they will still be required to pay that fine, on top of their unlawful speeding ticket. This doesn’t eliminate tabs from the law, it just means unless you get caught for something else you won’t get fined.
Do you agree that you should pay a bus fare to use the bus? Or a light rail ticket to ride light rail? Or maybe airline tickets to fly on a plane? This is how societies function.
People who don’t keep their car registration current are more likely not to have car insurance, which means when they get in an accident with you, you will need to have uninsured motorist coverage. All that costs the responsible party, you in my scenario, more money to cover someone else’s failings. So this is really shifting burdens to parties perceived as more able to shoulder them. But don’t we believe that people who own vehicles should be required to register them? If not, let’s just change the law and do away with the requirement. Or as someone else mentioned, let’s just follow Tim Eyman’s lead and lower registration fees to $30.
Great points Glenn, of which I agree with. A few counterpoints, one mentioned in a counterpoint above. 1. When they drive outside the city limits and on federal highways it is illegal and they will be cited. So as long as they don’t plan to travel on any state highway I suppose they should be ok. 2. Registration helps law enforcement if a vehicle is stolen. Without the ability to stop vehicles for expired tabs this could make identifying and catching stolen vehicles much more difficult. Criminals might target vehicles with expired tabs to avoid getting stopped. If low income residents are less likely to register they might be disproportionately targeted and impacted.
Lowering registration fees is an interesting idea, though Tim Eyman has a questionable history so I would need to do more research.
Sound Transit’s boondoggle is clearly hurting low income residents. I recall my tabs at one point renewing for almost $300 through an algorithm that has proven to be wacky. There have been numerous reports around the lack of oversight and forecasting for this massive project, which will likely require another measure that adds more taxes. I don’t think the solution to helping low income residents is to eliminate policing and enforcement.
How much you want to bet that accidents go up.. this is ludicrous…
You’re spot on with the ‘ludicrous’ adjective.. probably the most appropriate one for your comment.
I’d love to see ANY info that correlates violations such as expired tabs or no front plate to an increase in vehicle collisions. Even if it’s from the Onion..hahaha.
In summation, I will take that bet!
I’m sure parking enforcement will pick up the slack on all of those tickets. Can’t lose tax revenue!
Why in the hell are some people paying for their license tabs and others don’t have to!