CALIFORNIA - MOTORCYCLE ONLY CHECKPOINTS

OFF THE WIRE
Motorcyclists are being singled out as a group and profiled for stops by police and cited for subjective equipment and other violations using the motorcyclists' "safety" as an excuse. Many of these are motorcycle-only enforcement stops and checkpoints by law enforcement agencies.

This discriminatory enforcement activity was almost non-existent, before a few years ago, when the State Office... of Traffic Safety (OTS) started awarding financial grants to state law enforcement agencies to concentrate on what they thought were legitimate targets for increased or special enforcement, like DUI checkpoints, etc. Increasingly, the target of these enforcement efforts are ONLY motorcyclists.

In turn, the OTS awards grant money given to it by the federal government for improving motorcyclist safety through training and education programs and motorist awareness initiatives, not for subjective discriminatory checkpoints for motorcycle riders only.

Background

Last year, in Georgia, New York and several others, aggressive state law enforcement agencies set up roadside checkpoints and cited ONLY motorcyclists with the primary goal of hassling motorcycle operators and their passengers. We originally introduced this bill to prohibit these types of checkpoints in California.

However, the OTS and the NHTSA have been issuing grant money to the CHP and local law enforcement agencies to conduct "motorcycle safety programs" that have resulted in many of our state law enforcement agencies in citing and checking motorcycles ONLY. For example, the Citrus Heights Police Department illegally used this grant money to purchase sound equipment to do profiling harassment of motorcycle for loud pipes. (Please see attached articles of the misuse of grant money that has been used in the name of promoting motorcycle safety for enforcement only uses.)

This should be defined in the bill as a misuse of public monies and will be prosecuted by the state Attorney General.

This Bill
Assembly Bill 1047
1. Will prohibit the use of any federal, state or other highway safety funds to be used for selective motorcycle enforcement violations, but instead, to be used for their intended purpose of motorcycle safety training and education and motorist awareness of motorcyclists.
2. Will prohibit any law enforcement agency to have a motorcycle "safety" enforcement program that targets and profiles motorcyclists as a "group." This bill will prohibit motorcycle-only stops.
3. An additional requirement would be to have any state law enforcement department or agency that chooses to accept grant money from federal sources, California (OTS), cities or counties to use a portion of that money received to compile a certified monthly report, listing the number of motorcycles stopped and cited, and the number of other vehicles stopped, warned or cited to be submitted to the Senate and Assembly Transportation Committee for their assessment of the law enforcement agencies' compliance with 2. and 3 above.

For More Information
Craig DeLuz, Capitol Director
State Capitol, Rm. 5128
(916) 319-2066
Fax (916) 319-2166
craig.deluz@asm.ca.gov