California Criminal Defense Lawyers

A mall in Manteca California is setting up video scanning technology, and directly connecting it to police tracking databases. The automatic license plate scanner will be looking for stolen vehicles, and could be used for locating the cars of anyone believed to have a criminal warrant, or be driving while their license is under suspension.

These license plate scanners typically are mounted on police vehicles of many departments, and are in use in a number of communities such as Sacramento. They allow police officers to passively scan up to thousands of cars per hour, checking license plates against databases generated by the DMV and other law enforcement agencies. When a vehicle is flagged by a computer in a police cruiser, the officer is instantly notified to pull over you vehicle.

The use of these scanners in stationary, unattended locations is a new trend that is often associated with homeland security related monitoring and tracking. In this case, it is primarily said to be employed to track down stolen vehicles, in an area with among the highest incidents of car thefts in the nation.

Once set up, however, these scanners can easily be employed to match information about the owners of the vehicle license plates scanned. If the owner has a suspended driver’s license, or has an open criminal warrant for failure to appear, the police will instantly be notified.

These scanners are being added to new locations and used by more police departments all the time. If you have a warrant out for your arrest, it is becoming extremely difficult to avoid being caught. It always makes sense to talk to an attorney about how you can fix your problems with the courts and the law as quickly as possible, while you may have an opportunity to avoid the harshest result.

This information is also stored and can be used to later trace your movements. For example, if the police or other law enforcement agents are interested in where you or your car have been recently, they’ll be able to run a check on any license plate location hits from any of these scanning sites, or mobile monitoring stations. They will know that you’ve been to the mall, or were driving down I-5 at a certain time of day.

If you’ve been charged with a crime in California, please contact us to get a free criminal case evalaluation and legal consultation.

New, stricter drunk driving laws may be on the way for California. There are a number of proposed legislative changes to California DUI laws that are in different stages of discussion and passage, in both the California State Assembly and the State Senate.

There is a lot of momentum for tougher laws surrounding the use and requirements for ignition interlock devices in the cars of anyone found guilty of a DUI in California. An ignition interlock device prevents a car from starting if a driver can’t pass a in-car breathalyzer test.

It seems likely that some variations of these drunk driving laws changes and enhancements could be in effect in the near future.

Laws that are in the legislative process include:

• AB2784 which would require the use of an ignition interlock device for anyone convicted of a first offense DUI in California. First offense interlock requirements recently passed in Arizona and Illinois, and are under review in other states.
• A related bill, SB1361 would require that drivers provide proof of installation of an ignition interlock in his or her vehicle in order to have a license reinstated by the DMV.
• SB1388 would require that anyone convicted of driving on a license under suspension for a drunk driving charge with the past 10 years have an ignition interlock device required for continued driving. The IID requirement period could be from 1-3 years.
• Bill SB1190 would lower the “High BAC” threshold from .20 to .15% BAC.  A person convicted of a first offense DUI with a high BAC is currently sentenced to the ignition interlock requirement. The new proposed law would lower that number to .15, or just under twice the legal limit of .08% for measured alcohol in the bloodstream.

If you are charged with a DUI or other crime anywhere in California, please contact us for a free legal case evaluation. We’ll provide you with some advice and recommendations on what you can do, and how we can help.