Police Crackdown Targets Unlicensed Teen Drivers

A group of El Monte teens got the embarrassment of their lives Tuesday: Police pulled them over for driving a car without a license--in front of their high school and their classmates--and then called their parents.

What may seem like an exercise in adolescent humiliation is actually part of a crackdown by the El Monte Police Department to reduce unlicensed teen driving. Officer Richard Thomas said that when police have impounded cars driven by teens who do not have a driver’s license, parents complain that the youths were actually driving the family car without permission.

Thomas noted that teens who do not have a license usually have not had formal driving instruction. “They are more high-risk,” he said.

The department handed out fliers last week warning students at Mountain View High School not to drive without a license. Then Monday afternoon, as classes let out, police units waited outside the school and stopped teens as they drove off.

Thomas said that about seven youths were cited for driving without licenses. But rather than immediately impound the cars, police called the youths’ parents. Two cars were impounded after parents could not be reached. The rest of the cars were released to the parents, Thomas said.

There will be similar operations at El Monte and Arroyo High Schools later this year, Thomas said.