Impound

Looking for some hot goods? PropertyRoom.com, a Web site launched this week in San Clemente, auctions goods that were seized or recovered by law enforcement agencies in Southern California. The parent company, Property Bureau, has agreements with a dozen Southern California police departments, including Fullerton and Garden Grove. By law, departments are required to sell the goods that accumulate in their warehouses. The money usually goes to the city or county. Enter Property Bureau.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League filed suit Wednesday against the city and its Police Department over a controversial policy that will limit cases in which police officers impound vehicles of drivers operating without a license. The new procedures put Los Angeles police officers in conflict with state laws governing 30-day impounds and could expose them to civil liability, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The union, which represents more than 9,900 sworn LAPD employees, is asking a judge to determine the validity of the policy and impose an injunction to stop it from being implemented.

While voters elsewhere in the country were pondering questions of governorships and gay marriage, Denver residents were asked this week to consider a decidedly more obscure issue: Should police be allowed to decide for themselves when to seize cars from unlicensed drivers? Voters answered with a resounding yes, siding with law enforcement on what had become a controversial issue that many saw as a thinly disguised effort to target undocumented immigrants. Initiative 300 sought to require police to impound cars when they found them driven by unlicensed motorists -- stripping authorities of the discretion to make that decision for themselves.

War without end Re " A drug war success story? ," Opinion, Feb. 29 William C. Rempel's Op-Ed article on the 1989 cocaine bust in Sylmar that ultimately strengthened the Mexican drug cartels illustrates the folly of the continuing war on drugs. This war is an arms race in which the opponent has no morals and no qualms about a scorched-earth strategy. Increasingly, the casualties are innocent people and entire economic sectors, such as Mexican tourism and trips by charitable organizations to the country.

San Clemente police impounded Brad Oxley's Kawasaki street bike Sunday after the 1987 national speedway motorcycle champion was stopped for doing wheelies on Pacific Coast Highway. He was charged with riding without a license to operate a motorcycle. Oxley, a professional motorcycle racer in stadium events for 11 years, paid $80 to get the bike out of impound Monday.

Like their counterparts in cities across Colorado, Denver police decide when to seize cars from people they find driving without licenses. Sometimes they issue a ticket and let a relative take the car home; other times, they call a tow company. But officers stand to lose that discretion as voters on Tuesday will consider a measure that would mandate authorities to impound vehicles driven by unlicensed motorists -- an initiative pushed by a local man who says law enforcement isn't doing its job of ridding city streets of unsafe, uninsured drivers.

In response to your editorial (May 14), "Carrot-Stick Amnesty for Cars," I agree that something must be done about the enormous number of people who refuse to pay their annual registration fees. Under the present system, a citation for expired registration is, in essence, a "fix-it" ticket. People who have not paid their registration fees for, say, five years are not going to rush to the Department of Motor Vehicles to pay their fees to satisfy the whim of a police officer who happened to notice their expired tags.

As a dog lover, civil libertarian and citizen of Rancho Palos Verdes for 35 years, I object to the ordinance [passed by the City Council May 2] that to me maligns dogs and violates constitutional due process. The ordinance defines a "potentially dangerous" or vicious dog as any dog, when unprovoked, that engages in any behavior twice in 36 months that requires a defensive action by any person to prevent bodily injury when the person and the dog are off the property of the owner. The due process of enforcing the ordinance is indeed troublesome when city officials with probable cause "shall have the authority to . . . seize and impound that dog--pending the hearing."

Before I bought my house in March 1998, I read the Real Estate section religiously. The "Tales From the Trenches" articles were very helpful, and now I want to give something back. Here are some suggestions: Get pre-approved for a home loan. It will make the escrow process much faster. Also, educate yourself about different loan products. Compare fees and interest rates. Avoid impound accounts. If you have financial self-discipline, don't let your lender create impound accounts for insurance and property taxes.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck wants to revamp the department's rules to allow his officers greater discretion in deciding when to seize and impound the car of an unlicensed driver with no prior convictions, and in determining how long it should be held. The policy change is long overdue. No doubt the proposal will stir anger in nativist circles, where it will be portrayed as a sop to undocumented immigrants, who are barred from obtaining driver's licenses and whose lives would be made a little less difficult as a result of this change.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck wants to revamp the department's rules to allow his officers greater discretion in deciding when to seize and impound the car of an unlicensed driver with no prior convictions, and in determining how long it should be held. The policy change is long overdue. No doubt the proposal will stir anger in nativist circles, where it will be portrayed as a sop to undocumented immigrants, who are barred from obtaining driver's licenses and whose lives would be made a little less difficult as a result of this change.

The Los Angeles Police Department's controversial plan to revamp the rules on how officers impound vehicles of unlicensed drivers was put on hold Tuesday because state lawyers questioned the legality of the proposed reforms. Police Chief Charlie Beck, who has faced considerable blowback in recent weeks from people angered by the impound plan, had hoped the Police Commission would approve implementation of the new rules at Tuesday's meeting.. Those hopes were stymied, however, by a nonpartisan state agency that issued a last-minute report questioning the legality of the new rules.

At first glance, a proposal by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck to clarify the way police handle cars they impound from unlicensed drivers doesn't sound controversial. But his proposal touches one of the city's hot-button issues - illegal immigration - and it reopens a larger, historical question: Who's in charge of the city's police? Under Beck's plan, police officers would be given guidelines for when they should impound the cars of unlicensed drivers for 30 days - a penalty that can impede a driver's ability to work and cost him or her almost $1,400 - and when they should instead merely hold a car until a licensed driver can pick it up. Factors such as the driver's record and the seriousness of the violation would dictate which approach would be employed and presumably discourage arbitrary and unequal treatment.

Unlicensed drivers without prior convictions would be given the chance to avoid having their vehicles impounded under new rules outlined Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Department. The proposed changes to the impound procedures are a potentially explosive issue because LAPD Chief Charlie Beck designed the reforms to remedy what he believes is the unfair burden that impounds place on illegal immigrants. Since immigrants who are in the country illegally cannot get driver's licenses in California and most other states, they make up the majority of the drivers who have their cars impounded for the infraction.

A new policy that would allow unlicensed drivers, including illegal immigrants, to avoid having their cars impounded for up to 30 days is in the process of being finalized but first will be subject to community input and Police Commission review, Los Angeles officials said Tuesday. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been working closely with the Los Angeles Police Department to develop a policy that should be ready by January, said spokesman Peter Sanders. "The policy is still in draft form," Sanders said.

Citing reports that at least a handful of absentee ballots had been mailed to voters who are now deceased, Republican Bob Turner obtained a court order impounding absentee ballots cast in the special election in New York's 9th Congressional District. Bill O'Reilly, a spokesman for the Turner campaign, said in an email that the campaign requested that the ballots be impounded after "getting serious reports of election fraud. " "Many Democrats -- including deceased ones -- were sent ballots without applying," O'Reilly said.

Everyone knows there's a large municipal force in Los Angeles devoted to writing parking tickets. Each officer averages about six citations an hour, and 80% of those who receive tickets pay their fines, averaging about $37. Gross collections ran to $125 million in 2001, and $93 million of that was net, going into the city's general fund. But there are aspects of the parking laws and their enforcement that remain obscure.

What a strange ride it has been for L.A.'s first subway. Shut down in 1955, the Belmont Tunnel went from being a commuter route for rail passengers between downtown and the Westlake district to a storage site for survival rations, a holding cell for impounded vehicles, a movie set and, unofficially, a giant graffiti canvas and field of study for urban explorers. Along the way, the mile-long subterranean route acquired an aura of mystery. "I used to hop the fence and . . .

The state Senate on Tuesday voted to restrict cities' ability to impound cars driven by people caught at sobriety checkpoints without driver's licenses. The action came as a direct response to the city of Bell, which made it a practice to confiscate vehicles from unlicensed motorists — many of them illegal immigrants — and then charge high impound fees or sell them in order to fill city coffers. Currently, cities can hold cars taken from unlicensed drivers for 30 days, with impound fees accruing each day. If unclaimed, the vehicles may then be auctioned off, something that often happens when fines and fees exceed the car's value.

For a two-man operation, the Police Department in tiny Maricopa has developed an outsize reputation. The chief, the sergeant and the 20 volunteers who help them have been accused of running a costly speed trap, sapping motorists' desire for a return visit to the oil field town 40 miles southwest of Bakersfield. One local businessman even put up billboard-size signs outside his gas station warning travelers to watch themselves because the department "wants your cars and your money.