It takes a special brand of scofflaw to drive to and from a criminal court hearing regarding a suspended drivers’ license, but numerous people do just that in Bakersfield and other areas of the state.

Case in point: Officers in Orange County recently followed 15 license suspension defendants out of the courthouse and into the parking lot. Five of them got in their cars and tried to drive off the lot. One person had not received official notice of suspension, so the deputies gave him a break. The other four received traffic citations, and their vehicles were impounded for 30 days each.

A grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funded this particular sting operation, and officers throughout California periodically conduct these operations.

STEP Campaigns/Saturation Enforcement

Once as numerous as grains of sand on the seashore and stars in the sky, Sustained Traffic Enforcement Program campaigns are now increasingly rare, thanks to a mixture of legal changes and budget cuts. The federal government no longer has the money to fund these grant programs, and recent changes to the impound law limit the amount of money that law enforcement agencies can collect. For example, to impound a vehicle at a checkpoint, authorities must charge the drivers with something more than simply driving with a suspended license, such as DUI.

Saturation enforcement is a bit more common. Typically, the department pulls officers off their normal duties and instructs them to prowl a specific area and issue a certain type of citation. The department eats the overtime cost and any other expense.

Officers often write borderline tickets in both these situations, so if you were ticketed in any stepped-up enforcement campaign, there may be an additional legal defense. An experienced attorney can successfully leverage this defense during the trial and plea bargain negotiations.

Getting Legal Help

The aggressive lawyers at Bigger & Harman, APC, are committed to giving individuals a voice when dealing with speeding and traffic tickets. Call today at 661-859-1177 or email attorney@markbigger.com to receive the personal professional attention you deserve. En español, llame al 661-376-0214.