City Ticketing Drivers Who Lack Front Plates

If you think you can remove your front license plate to elude those automatic cameras that snap pictures of motorists who run red lights, think again.

Los Angeles parking enforcement officers this week began a crackdown on motorists who are illegally cruising the city’s streets sans front plates.

The city’s 300 parking officers began Monday issuing $25 fix-it tickets to license plate scofflaws to improve the effectiveness of the city’s growing photo enforcement program.

The cameras have been installed at eight intersections throughout the city, most recently at La Brea Avenue and Rodeo Road in the Crenshaw district. Over three years, the city plans to expand the program to 16 intersections.

The cameras, which are installed on traffic signal poles and connected to sensors in the pavement, are triggered when a vehicle crosses the intersection against a red light. Police use photos of the drivers and the vehicles’ front plates to identify the violators, who receive $271 citations in the mail. The cameras operate 24 hours a day.

But police officials, who oversee the camera program, say nearly 40% of the vehicles that have been photographed cannot be cited because they have no front plates. Under state law, police cannot simply snap pictures of the plates on the back of a vehicle, because a driver’s face also must be shown in the photograph, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Eugene Bedolla.

To improve the effectiveness of the program, Los Angeles parking enforcement officers will now inspect the front bumper of every car that is cited for a parking ticket.

“We will not randomly search out vehicles without plates,” said Rudy Carrasco, deputy chief of the city’s parking enforcement unit.

If a motorists replaces the missing plates within 21 days of getting a citation, the $25 fine is reduced to $10, Carrasco said.

Last month, traffic officers caught 202 drivers without front license plates on their cars during a morning crackdown at Laurel Canyon and Victory boulevards in North Hollywood.

The photo program has been expanding throughout the nation, despite complaints that the cameras violate drivers’ right to privacy.

Highway safety experts say more than 200,000 people each year are injured throughout the country in collisions caused by drivers who run red lights. More than 800 are killed.

The red light photo enforcement cameras are installed at the following Los Angeles intersections:

* Wilshire and Westwood boulevards.

* 6th and Alvarado streets.

* 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue.

* Imperial Highway and Figueroa Street.

* Rodeo Road and La Brea Avenue.

* Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards.

* Winnetka Avenue and Sherman Way.