Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed off on a controversial bill that will greatly affect the lives of California’s immigrant population, though it might not appear to at first glance.
Assembly Bill 353 prohibits cities and law enforcement from impounding the cars of sober, unlicensed drivers who are stopped at sobriety checkpoints.
Under the new law, if a sober driver is caught at a DUI checkpoint without a valid license, law enforcement officers must release the car to a legal driver representing the registered owner. If a legal driver isn’t available right away, the vehicle is released to one later at the impound lot.
Latino advocacy groups have claimed some cities use sobriety checkpoints to unfairly target illegal immigrants. Others argue that cities—like Bell in Southern California—use the impound fees to line government coffers.
Locally, police and city officials have said cracking down on unlicensed drivers is essential to solving Santa Maria’s hit-and-run problem. The Sun reported in 2009 that the city was the hit-and-run capital of the state among similar-sized communities, according to traffic data released by the California Office of Traffic Safety.
“We’re an agricultural community in Santa Maria, and with that we have the influx of the migrant field-worker class,” then-corporal Jesse Silva told the Sun. “Unfortunately, a lot of them do not have drivers’ licenses and a lot of them cannot obtain a license at all in the state of California.”
In Santa Maria, vehicles can be impounded for 30 days for a variety of reasons, including driving without a license or if the car is wanted in relation to a hit-and-run incident. Impounded cars are towed away and housed by one of the local towing companies.
The city tried to buy its own impound lot, but that plan was scrapped after the contracted towing companies complained to the City Council.
As it stands today, an impounded vehicle will be released only to a licensed driver after fees are paid to the towing company, which charges $185 for the tow, and $45 to $50 per day for storage, city spokesman Mark van de Kamp said. The city’s fee of $148.60 partly recovers costs for officers making the traffic stop and processing the paperwork. The city doesn’t collect any tow fees, but it does have to be notified by tow companies when the fees have been paid.
Towed vehicles valued at $500 or less are junked if not reclaimed by the registered owners. If the value of the vehicle is more than $500 and the vehicle is unclaimed, the towing company can send it to lien sale to recoup some of its costs. Repeat offender vehicles worth $1,499 or more are forfeited to the police department and then sold at auction.
Representatives from the Santa Maria Police Department didn’t return phone calls as of press time.
Brian Gomez, a manager at Santa Maria Towing, said the bill, once enacted, will create a loss of income for the towing companies that contract with the city.
“We do a lot of the AAA work here in town, so we stay busy. But there is a possibility—a very strong possibility—for layoffs, especially at small companies,” Gomez said. “The thing is, you have to compound that to the thousands of other cities throughout California.”
He said the DUI checkpoints don’t target Hispanic people unfairly.
“I’ve been through the checkpoints myself. I get caught, too. They ask the questions, ‘Have you been drinking tonight?’ and ‘Do you have a license?’” he said. “If you’re breaking the law, you’re breaking the law—you’re driving knowingly without a license.”
The majority of people living in Santa Maria are Hispanic, he said, so it makes sense that the majority of impounded cars would belong to Hispanic people.
Contact Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 13-20, 2011.