Plate readers don't generate money you say.....
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With less money from the state and bounced-check funds drying up, Oklahoma district attorneys are turning to issuing tickets and putting people on probation through their offices — activities typically left to police, counties and the Department of Corrections.
Their newest effort that yields revenue is to crack down on uninsured drivers using a system that scans the license plates of hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans on roadways every year.
In March, the District Attorneys Council, which coordinates state funding for Oklahoma’s 27 district attorneys, recommended a vendor to provide automated license plate scanners. The vendor’s name is being withheld until the contract is finalized.
The scanning devices, which will connect to a database of insured drivers, could start appearing on roadways by the end of the year. Uninsured motorists will get citations in the mail and, if they don’t successfully appeal, pay fines to district attorneys. If they obtain insurance, they can prevent the charges from going on their permanent record. No police or state troopers will be involved in the process.
District attorneys say the purpose of the program is to reduce the large number of uninsured drivers in the state — a problem that pushes up insurance rates and medical costs and contributes to hit-and-run accidents.
But the financial incentive for district attorney’s offices is also strong.
As state funding for their budgets has declined, district attorneys have looked to alternative ways to generate revenue for prosecuting criminals and providing other services.
Ticketed by the DA
Authorized by legislation in 2016, the Uninsured Vehicle Enforcement Diversion Program would allow an uninsured driver to enter a deferred prosecution agreement with the district attorney. The driver would pay the DA’s office an amount equal to the fees that would have been paid to the court had a criminal case been filed, but keeps a charge of driving without insurance off the driver’s record.
Similar proposals and legislation in other states have been rejected. Among the issues are privacy concerns as they relate to whether data collected on vehicle owners will be kept or shared.
Cleveland and Rogers counties, Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety have discussed or implemented license plate scanners. However, none is using them to catch uninsured drivers.
District Attorney Mike Boring, whose office represents Beaver, Cimarron, Harper and Texas counties, said: “What this program does is give someone the ability to: A. Go get the insurance they’re required to have, and B. We put them on the deferred program where there’s not a citation filed against them, so nothing goes on their record.”
According to a 2014 report from the Insurance Information Institute, one in four Oklahoma drivers is uninsured. Boring said efforts to bring the uninsured rate down in the past have not been effective.
In order for the program to work, the state’s motor vehicle insurance database will require upgrades, said DA Council Executive Coordinator Trent Baggett.
Two bills in the Legislature are aimed at transferring the state’s motor vehicle insurance database from the Department of Public Safety to the Oklahoma Insurance Department. Senate Bill 115 was approved and sent to the governor.
Under the current law, at least 95 percent of motor vehicle insurers in the state, by market share, must be able to report to the database instantaneously before the program can begin. Currently, insurers must report to the DPS-run database, and they may offer real-time verification or upload lists of policyholders.
Transferring control and operation of the database from DPS to the Insurance Department will allow for rules to be created mandating reporting to the database, Boring said, while also allowing for an upgrade to the system’s usability.
“The issue there has been severe lack of funding and the inability of the Department of Public Safety to meet its primary responsibilities and not having the extra money to devote to hardware and software and get that program working,” Boring said.
When the system goes live, there will probably be traffic tests in certain areas of the state, beginning with vehicle-mounted cameras, Boring said. In higher-traffic areas, cameras may be pole-mounted, and movable trailer-mounted cameras may eventually be used, he said.
“The idea is to (eventually) get broad coverage,” he said. “We want to do this on a gradual basis.”
Boring said it’s likely the cameras will not come at a cost to DAs’ offices, meaning that the vendor will likely get a cut of the fees paid under the program.
For those caught by the cameras, the cost will be around $200, Boring said. That is less than if criminal charges were filed and the person would not lose their driver’s license.
Boring said he was not sure how much money the program would generate for district attorneys. It depends on the vendor contract and the effects of a public awareness campaign.
“If we’re half as successful as we hope we can be, after a couple of years that revenue is going to drop,” Boring said.
The goal of the program is increase the number of insured drivers, not bring in money, he said.
“This is a less harsh way of doing that,” Boring said. “If revenue were the driving factor, I’d be saying let’s put one on every street corner.”