Drivers and their advocates are appealing to city lawmakers to make D.C. police officers stop arresting drivers for having expired tags while surrounding jurisdictions merely issue tickets for the infraction. Driving with tags that have been expired for more than 30 days is an arrestable offense in the District, but officers are also allowed to simply issue a citation. However, according to estimates by the police union and AAA Mid-Atlantic, between 100 and 300 people per year are arrested and charged with driving a vehicle with expired registration in the District.
“Not only is this draconian, it’s like you have to go back to the Dark Ages,” said John Townsend, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s manager of public and government affairs. “It’s almost like this is the Taliban. [Officers] have better things to do.”
The law dates back to the 1990s, when the District was the murder capital of the country and criminals were using unregistered cars to evade police. Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said the policy was modified to address the city’s reduction in crime rate and drivers now have a 30-day grace period before they are subject to arrest.
“These actions are in accordance with District law,” Crump said. “If the council … is concerned with this law, we encourage them to review the issue and determine whether to amend it.”
Townsend has appealed to at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to hold a hearing on the topic, but said Tuesday he’s not hopeful Mendelson will oblige. The councilman did not return a request for comment for this story.
Kristopher Baumann, president of the police officers union, said the law is still a useful crime-fighting tool.
“If you’re driving around with an unregistered auto and you kill somebody, we have no way to find you,” he said.
But Townsend noted police only issue citations for the same offense in surrounding jurisdictions, unless they think another crime has been committed.
He said D.C. police regularly make arrests where there are no other infractions, most recently a mother with a small child in the car and a naval officer at the Pentagon who had been deployed to Afghanistan.
The naval officer’s arrest spurred Virginia Sen. Jim Webb to write a letter last week to D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray. Gray later said he expected police to use their discretion.
