Police Impound 500 Vehicles in Fight Against Hit-and-Runs

Los Angeles police, trying to reduce hit-and-run accidents during the holiday weekend, impounded about 500 vehicles in the San Fernando Valley on Friday in a crackdown on motorists driving without valid licenses or registrations.

Authorities said the unprecedented operation would reduce hit-and-run accidents because police believe that drivers frequently flee accident scenes because they do not have the proper license or registration.

Beginning at 9 a.m., a force of 110 officers, reservists and civilian employees fanned out through all five patrol divisions in the Valley and began checking cars and drivers for proper licensing after making routine traffic stops. Although police have the discretion to issue only citations for such violations, on Friday all vehicles were impounded.

Sgt. Dennis Zine said the one day of harsher treatment for scofflaws was designed to send a message to motorists and have an impact on hit-and-run accidents during the Labor Day weekend.

After analyzing the 8,000 hit-and-run accident reports in the Valley last year, police concluded that “it is the people who have no license or registration that flee,” Zine said.

“The concept of this operation is, comply with the law or you’re going to lose your car. We are stopping people for any kind of violation, and if they don’t have proper licensing and registration we impound the cars.”

To get their cars back, the owners must rectify the legal problem they were cited for and pay a $59 impoundment fee and $11-per-day garage fee, police said.

Zine said the crackdown--dubbed Operation ALERT, for Area License Enforcement Registration Team--is the fourth this year in the Valley.

“This is the largest operation like this the LAPD has ever done,” he said. The three previous crackdowns, which fielded fewer officers and did not cover the entire Valley, collected 443 cars combined.

With drivers from five official police garages on standby throughout the day, police were towing more than 50 cars an hour, Zine said.

The officers towed cars with expired registration tags of a year or more, and cars operated by motorists driving with no driver’s licenses or with revoked or suspended licenses, he said.

Police said they netted cars ranging from abandoned hulks to expensive makes.

“I’ve had people come out and cheer because we were towing a car that’s been sitting on the street for months--and then some pretty nice cars like this one,” Officer Larry Demas said as he signaled to the driver of a tow truck hooking up a Saab 900 Turbo.

Demas called for the tow truck after spotting the stylish sports sedan on a Chatsworth street. There was no registration sticker on the license plate and a computer check determined the registration was 18 months overdue.

As the owner of the chocolate-brown Saab watched the truck tow it away, he lamented his own laziness, instead of criticizing Demas or the police crackdown.

“They’re just doing their job,” the man said. “I don’t enjoy seeing this but it’s my own fault. I just was busy with work and let it slip and slip. It’s laziness. And I guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, it’s not the best way to start the long weekend.”

When asked for his name, the Saab owner said, “Just put down, ‘One of many.’ ” A constant stream of towed cars and irate owners flowed through the lot of Fox Motors, an official police garage in Van Nuys, Friday afternoon.

“Obviously it’s a boon for business,” general manager Bill Fox said. “I’m sure the public is not crazy about it.”

Normally the company operates five tow trucks a day, bringing in about 25 cars. But Friday an additional six trucks were needed to tow 75 impounded vehicles.

“The majority of cars are older cars, not the safest cars,” Fox said looking across a lot of towed vehicles.

The operation brought an introduction to public transportation to motorists like Susan Moritz.

“We took three buses and then walked a mile,” she said while standing in line to retrieve her car. “It’s terrible. I’ve never had this happen before.”

Fox’s tow truck operators said they have grown hardened to the verbal abuse hurled at them by car owners during operations such as these. “You meanies, you took my car from me,” one elderly woman complained to a group of tow truck operators before entering the company office to retrieve her car.

The drivers seemed unfazed.

“I’ve been called worse,” driver Richard Gillis said. “People just don’t understand, they think it’s us impounding their car, not the police.”

The company planned to stay open an extra three hours to allow motorists to retrieve their cars.