[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]
By Jaimie Cavanaugh & Daryl James
Real Clear Wire
Some people have $100 to spare. Others don’t. The difference can be huge for motorists driving the same speeds on the same roads in Delaware.
Under a new law, which authorizes residential speed cameras in the state, vehicle owners with sufficient funds can settle photo radar tickets from the comfort of home and be done with the matter within minutes. Vehicle owners who live paycheck to paycheck, in contrast, can face months or years of pain.
The sticker shock starts when they open their mail. If they are caught going 41 mph in a 30 mph zone, for example, their fines and fees for a first offense will top $100, assuming they go to court and lose. If they lack the ability to pay promptly, the government will suspend their driver’s license.
No questions asked. No exceptions. The law says this “shall” occur. Courts may also choose “denial of the registration or renewal of registration of any of the owner’s vehicles.”
The result can be a debt cycle for Delaware families in distress. Without transportation, household providers cannot work. They cannot take their children to daycare. They cannot take their elderly parents to doctor’s appointments. Ironically, they cannot easily attend court hearings, which can land them in more trouble.
Speeding is illegal, and the government has a right to enforce the law. But Delaware is imposing penalties that have nothing to do with the traffic code. Otherwise, all motorists would suffer in similar ways for similar violations. But losing the ability to drive—essentially the ability to earn an honest living—is a consequence reserved only for the poor.
Their underlying offense is not speeding. It’s poverty.
Delaware took steps to stop this type of disproportionate justice in 2022. Among other provisions, House Bill 244 ended driver’s license suspensions for failure to pay court debts. At least 22 other states and Washington, D.C., have passed similar laws since 2017 to end debt-based suspensions, and some jurisdictions have gone further. People who receive traffic tickets in San Francisco County, for example, may request an ability-to-pay hearing and have their fines and fees reduced by as much as 80 percent. Defendants may also substitute community service for cash.
San Francisco motorists pay a price for violating traffic laws. But their punishment fits the crime. It does not leave families destitute.
Delaware has chosen to go in the opposite direction, weakening its reforms from one year earlier. The policy shift is risky, considering the appetite some agencies have demonstrated for fines and fees abuse. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, sued Wilmington in 2021 on behalf of vehicle owners trapped in a predatory parking enforcement scheme.
Wilmington repeatedly ticketed Ameera Shaheed’s legally parked car. While she appealed, the city towed her vehicle and demanded payment in full. Shaheed, a disabled grandmother of three, could not afford to settle her $320 tab within 30 days, so the tow company scrapped her car.
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Stories like this are routine in Wilmington. Just imagine what will happen when cash-strapped cities and towns get their hands on photo radar—potentially a much bigger moneymaker.
The new law promises traffic enforcement without bias. The unblinking lenses mounted on poles and trailers across the state will treat all motorists the same—with the exception of emergency responders, who enjoy special immunity. Everyone else must follow the rules. The speed cameras will not discriminate based on age, sex, race or religion.
On the surface this might seem fair. But a one-size-fits-all approach to fines and fees places an unequal burden on the poor. And suspending anyone’s license for any reason other than public safety is abuse—especially when the government is using the tactic as leverage to collect debts.
Delaware already reached this conclusion in 2022. Now the state is driving in reverse.
Jaimie Cavanaugh is an attorney and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolicy and made available via RealClearWire.
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