No on Initiative 300

Last night at Council, Judy joined a 10-1 majority in supporting Proclamation 48, which opposes Initiative 300 (set to go before the voters next month). The new measure would require police officers to impound vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers. Judy considers it a terrible use of resources, insofar as any police person-hours that are diverted into auto towing are hours taken away from actually keeping the city safe. DPD estimates that it will take an additional 18,160 person hours to impound cars if the measure passes. At a time like this, with budgets shrinking and resources stretched to the limit, we can’t afford it.

Here’s a snippet of Judy’s thoughts on the matter from Huffington Post:

DPD estimates the cost of the proposed impound measure to be over $1.6 million dollars. With the passage of this initiative, the City would be increasing funding to pay for operating impound lots around the same time we will be turning over the keys to some of our recreation centers to non-profits because the City can’t afford to operate them. . . .

One reason there is such strong concern about this measure within legal community is that it requires officers to impound the cars of drivers who cannot produce “convincing corroborating” evidence of their identity. What is “convincing” evidence? Good question. The initiative doesn’t spell out what “convincing” evidence might be.

Further, law enforcement is very concerned that under this proposed measure officers would be required to order impounding if the officer merely suspects the driver to be in the United States illegally. The current law grants officers the discretion to do this already, but the new measure would actually require it. What kind of criteria would warrant such suspicion on the part of a police officer? Another good question the initiative language doesn’t answer. The proposed measure doesn’t tell us what kind of criteria an officer should use to establish suspicion about someone’s legal citizenship status. The requirement that officers impound cars based on a fuzzy order to consider the suspiciousness of the person driving the car flies in the face of the anti-racial profiling training our safety workers are expected to undertake. . . .

The ballot featuring the impound initiative on November 3rd will also be host to Denver Public School Board members up for election. Yet, since this isn’t a statewide election, voters will not receive a bluebook that offers arguments for and against the issues on the ballot. This is yet another reason that I sincerely hope that you will talk to your neighbors and friends about the very significant impacts this initiative will have on all Denver citizens.

Read the whole thing at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judy-montero/the-vehicle-impound-initi_b_299250.html.