An inquiry by Rifle police officer Kallie McCain to the municipal court led Wednesday to a full discussion on the appearance of license plates and vehicles by the City Council.
At issue is obscured plates and the process by which police officers face additional workload writing citations to both municipal and county courts for the violation. The state’s statute on the display of license plates was not included in Rifle’s Model Traffic Code – a statute at least one member of City Council finds to be vague.
By adding the language of the state statute to the local code, officers could write the ticket and potentially others into one court, said Municipal Court Clerk Kathy Pototsky, avoiding the need to appear in separate courts. It would be a $25 citation.
“Most officers would write it as a fix-it ticket,” explained Pototsky, adding the vehicle operator would address the issue and pay the fine.
City Councilman Joe Carpenter suggested it is not the only issue he sees with the appearance of vehicles in town. Some vehicles have registration or temporary tags a year old, he said.
“You don’t even want to open our file drawer on inoperable tickets right now,” Pototsky said. “It is a huge problem. We have tons. We get 50 of those a week?”
Added Carpenter: “I see them all the time. It is just amazing.”
What visibility means could be in the eye of the beholder, said City Councilman Brian Condie.
“What’s the visibility standard?” he asked. “Do I have to be able to see them from 20 feet, 20 yards or after we pull them over?”
That standard is not clearly defined in law, Pototsky said, but the police officer would have to prove visibility was obstructed in court.
The proposed amendment to code would require a motorist to ensure no affixed device or substance causes all or a portion of a license plate to be unreadable by a system used to automatically identify a motor vehicle. This might include covers that distort visibility, alters the color of the plate, is smoked, tinted, scratched or dirty, leading to an impairment in the legibility of the license plate.
The ordinance was passed, 6-1, on first reading, with Condie opposing the change. It will likely return to the agenda on Feb. 21 for final approval.
“An officer could pull someone over for speeding,” City Councilman Chris Bornholdt explained. “The officer would write the speeding ticket to one location and the plate ticket somewhere else. This just puts everything together.”
It could be a way to create a secondary charge, “a way for us to harass people,” Condie said.
City Councilman Clint Hostettler disagreed: “The point is not to harass, but some people conceal their plates on purpose. I think our officers can say you went four-wheeling and the F looks like an E and understand it.”
That example might not entirely be the case, Police Chief Debra Funston said.
“I don’t think [police officers] are out pulling cars over just because they can’t read one letter,” she said.