Protected License Plates Allow Officials and Family to Never Pay Traffic Fines

Loopholes have been found in laws in both California and Colorado that were designed to keep the police safe from criminals wanting to hunt them down. Officials and their families have gotten away with not having to pay thousands of dollars in traffic and parking fines.

In the state of Colorado, information hasn't been entered into the database for license plates issued to 100 state lawmakers and representatives. Without the information in the system, it shields them from radar tickets for speeding, and collection notices for parking ticket fines.

Denver Public Works spokeswoman Emily Williams said, “Because the Department of Public Works relies on the DMV database to contact people with unpaid parking tickets, we are not able to contact legislators with unpaid parking tickets.”

The plates without information in the database are on the personal vehicles of state lawmakers. Officials in Denver said it would be too costly to correct the problem, so the fines, along with the names of violators, remain buried in city files.

The investication shows where the vehicle of an airport worker stopped for a traffic violation was found to owe more than $34,805.95 in unpaid penalties. The Camry was stopped for going through the express toll lane for the 470th time for free.