Its now pretty tough and expensive to try to evade paying a traffic fine under
the system set up by the states under mandates from the Federal Highway Admin
and DOT.
Back in the early to mid 80s or there bouts,states were mandated to design a
system to prevent commercial drivers from having a license from more than one
state. After setting it up states were allowed to also check to see if non
commercial drivers had multi state licenses. Within the system was a check for
suspensions by one state and the other states did not know about it. If state
"A" suspended a commercial driver,that driver could and usually did continue
driving because they had licenses from other states. As long as they did not
drive in state A who had suspended him or her,there was not problem. When
states started checking commercial drivers though this system,the driver had
to choose one state to be licensed in and the other licenses hold by the
person were taken. Today because of this system truckers and commercial
drivers have only one license held in the state of their choice. At renewal
time the system is checked for outstanding tickets,suspensions,warrants
etc....though all 50 states and it only takes a minute or so.
Prior to 9-11 it was voluntary on the part of states to check non commercial
drivers though this system. Today it is required of all states to check all
drivers,newly licensed,renewal licenses,moving from one state to another, for
outstanding tickets,violations etc..
The system today is so fine tuned,that parking tickets which are a major money
raiser for cities and states are included. If the parking tickets in question
had been moving violations such as speeding,the consequence could have been a
suspension by SC which CA would have enforced and its down hill from there.
One of things now that occurs when a law enforcement officer stops a car is a
check of this multi state computer system from the in-car computer that many
police cars carry as part of the equipment.
The system is now used by other federal and state agencies to track drivers
and vehicles as well as DMVs. This is why the driver from Ill had a problem
returning home from Canada.
So bottom line is,if you get an out of state ticket,pay it within the time
period and caulk it up,lesson learned. Big brother or not,this is the system
we have to live with.
The next step is national uniform license with lots of information embedded in
a chip,that will serve as a national ID card. Some states like NH are
resisting this.
Bill Pollock
CT
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