House bars cops from confiscating driver’s license

Following scrutiny by lawmakers, the House of Representatives yesterday finally cleared legislation that will bar police officers from confiscating driver’s license when issuing citation ticket for committing a traffic violation or infraction.

The move came after the lower house reviewed existing laws that have given the Department of Public Safety the power to seize the license in order to compel violators to appear in court to pay fines.

Critics have slammed the proposal under HB 12-270 as it could deprive authorities a strong means to force these violators to show up for their court summons and actually pay the fines.

But based on the legal analysis, the traffic code provides other methods by which to guarantee an individual’s appearance in court for a misdemeanor traffic violation without taking possession of the driver’s license.

The police can require a violator through a written promissory note to appear, with sanctions for any failure to do so. This sanction triggers and remains distinct “regardless of the disposition of the charge for which the citation was originally issued,” it said.

Likewise, the government has the option of requesting for a bench warrant for the person’s failure to appear on a traffic summons. Neither of these options requires that a person lose custody of his or her driver’s license, according to the analysis.

Lawmakers also expressed concern over a present practice by officers acting with “broad discretion and authority” to not only legally confiscate an individual’s license, but to also suspend a person’s driving privilege as stipulated in the citation ticket.

“There is no authorizing provision in the traffic code empowering DPS officers to temporarily suspend an individual’s driving privilege,” the analysis explained. “The code clearly reserved the power and authority to suspend, revoke or cancel a person’s driving privilege to the court, not the police.”

At least 13 House members voted in favor of the bill which now heads to the Senate for action. Rep. Diego T. Benavente was the lone dissenter, opposing the measure from the very beginning due to serious policy question.

The House Committee on Judicial and Government Operations endorsed the proposal sponsored by its chair Rep. Dino M. Jones, citing constitutional concerns under the existing practice.

“Not only is the person deprived of a valuable form of identification, they are forced to use the citation as a drivers license pending resolution of the case,” the report stated. “This is not only embarrassing, it cannot be used outside of the [CNMI].”

Mr. Jones maintained that after seizure of the license, the clerk of the Superior Court can take several days before it is given by the police and thus, inconvenient for many of those with traffic citation.

In many instances, persons desiring to pay their fine, and retrieve their license have to return to court several times before the clerk can locate the license, he said.

“This is inefficient, and no longer serves any useful purpose,” Mr. Jones explained. “We believe that a person is innocent until proven guilty, and feel that all of our laws should reflect this fundamental legal philosophy.”