Bill to Make Ticket-Fixing Illegal Clears the Assembly

Legislation to make it a crime for police to “fix” a traffic or parking ticket without going through the courts was approved Thursday by the Assembly and sent to Gov. George Deukmejian.

Assemblyman Larry Stirling, a San Diego Republican, said his bill was prompted by what he termed the “astonishing and embarrassing” San Diego Police Department practice allowing top officials to routinely dismiss tickets for the media, friends of police and influential members of the community.

The practice, which was altered by the city manager after it was detailed in a series of stories in The Times, damaged the credibility of the traffic enforcement process, Stirling said.

“I think it was embarrassing that the higher echelons of the San Diego Police Department were wholesale fixing tickets,” he said. “I just don’t think that’s right. I assumed when it was discovered that the appropriate investigating authorities would apply the appropriate law and there’d be corrective action taken. Lo and behold, there is no law.”

Police Response

But senior officers in the Police Department said they do not think Stirling’s bill would apply to them or to the way they handled tickets before the policy was changed.

“Larry’s bill will not affect the way we do business,” said Cmdr. Jim Kennedy, who was put in charge of ticket dismissals under the new policy developed by City Manager John Lockwood.

Traffic tickets have always been sent to the courts, even those to be dismissed, Kennedy said, but parking tickets are handled by the city treasurer’s office. If a ticket is to be dismissed, Kennedy attaches a slip describing the reasons for the dismissal to a copy of the ticket and sends it to the treasurer’s office.

“We don’t have to go to court to dismiss a purely internal document,” he said.

Kennedy said his reading of Stirling’s bill was that it would make it a misdemeanor for someone to “rathole” a ticket, or to pull it out of the process and hide it or destroy it.

Stirling, however, said his intent was to remove the decision to cancel a ticket from police and to give it to the courts. San Diego, he said, would have to change its system if his bill became law.

The bill reads, in part: “If, after a copy of the notice of violation is attached to the vehicle, the issuing officer determines that, in the interest of justice, the notice should be dismissed, the issuing agency may recommend, in writing, that the charges be dismissed. The recommendation shall cite the reasons for the recommendation and shall be filed with the court.”

Said Stirling, “The executive branch’s job is to carry out the law. It’s the judicial branch of the government that is to make the subjective call that says even though you broke the letter of the law, you didn’t break the spirit of the law. The fact that you’re a wonderful anchor person on evening television, or you’re a friend of (Police Chief) Bill Kolender or Larry Stirling should not be a reason why the law isn’t applicable to you.”

Deukmejian’s office said the governor has not taken a position on Stirling’s bill, which was approved by the Assembly on a 58-0 vote.