Milwaukee Could Start Towing Reckless Drivers’ Vehicles

The Fire & Police Commission is debating a policy change that would allow Milwaukee Police Department officers to tow vehicles used for reckless driving. The proposed change comes as the city deals with record-breaking vehicle theft and a growing reckless driving problem.

The revised standard operating procedure, a policy document that guides officer actions, would allow towing during traffic stops if the vehicle is determined to be unregistered and if a citation is issued for speeding for at least 25 miles per hour over the posted limit, endangering safety for reckless driving, fleeing from an officer or drag racing.

For a vehicle to be tow-eligible, the registration must have been expired for at least 31 days. The need for the vehicle to be unregistered is imposed by state law. Most of the current reasons for towing involve illegal parking or fleeing. The latter is a felony.

But in a move reminiscent of how a prior iteration of the commission struggled to hire a new police chief, the committee deadlocked on whether to recommend adopting the policy. The Policies and Standards Committee held the matter and is scheduled to review it at its next meeting, March 24.

“This is step one of dealing with a pandemic in our city of reckless driving,” Commissioner LaNelle Ramey of the policy during a virtual FPC meeting Thursday evening. Commission Chair Edward Fallone also endorsed the policy, with the condition that it was reviewed next December.

But two commissioners dissented.

“I’m a believer that solutions should start with resources and services,” said Commissioner Amanda Avalos. “I don’t think this will be the solution it’s meant to be.”

“I think it would be a mistake to adopt the changes without doing community outreach to let people know ‘this is what’s coming,'” said committee chair Joan Kessler. She said she would be okay with a conditional approval that required a timed review, but voted against Fallone’s December review.

Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who declared reckless driving a public safety crisis on his first day in office and released a plan to combat it, is backing the proposal. “I share our community’s frustration with reckless driving. It is a problem that makes our roadways feel unsafe, and, far more significantly, it has killed and injured people in Milwaukee,” said Johnson in a statement. He also backs engineering and education solutions.

“No doubt there is a role for enforcement, but we know we are not the only slice of the pie,” said MPD chief of staff Nick DeSiato. “We understand the limits of what enforcement can do.”

Most of the members of the public that spoke endorsed the policy.

“Anyone that takes a vehicle with full and total disregard for traffic laws in this state shouldn’t have the right to drive that vehicle,” said NAACP Milwaukee president Fred Royal at the meeting Thursday evening. A representative of Common Ground also endorsed the policy.

Others took issue with the speed limit towing trigger of 25 miles per hour over the speed, but still backed the policy.

“I think that is too high of a threshold,” said Montavius Jones. “At 25 miles per hour [over the speed limit] you can be doing 55 miles per hour down Center or Burleigh.” He noted that vehicles legally going 30 miles per hour are already deadly in a pedestrian collision.

Steve O’Connell, head of the Sherman Park Community Association‘s reckless driving task force, also asked for the speed limit trigger to be lowered. He suggested that a review of stop data showed that most violations were for 15 to 24 miles over the speed limit and suggested that as the threshold.

But others objected to the policy altogether.

“Reckless driving like all other crime is a result of poverty,” said one commenter, identified as Maya. Another commenter said stolen vehicles would be towed, further penalizing victims.

DeSiato said the policy is structured to avoid being “a poor tax.” He said the enforcement requires the vehicle to be unregistered and the driver to be engaged in dangerous behavior. DeSiato said MPD didn’t want to see the Common Council’s recommendation of towing any vehicle over five months expired be adopted verbatim because it could require towing of individuals that were otherwise driving legally and then were involved in a collision.

“We felt that we were going to start with something there is just no excuse [for],” said DeSiato of the decision to recommend the 25 mph over the speed limit threshold.

He said MPD today works to get stolen vehicles back to their owners and already waives fees involving stolen vehicles.

But one known potential consequence of the policy is that officers could be stuck waiting for vehicles to be towed. DeSiato said a new policy is being drafted that could save a sworn officer an hour or more of having to wait for a tow truck. City officials have discussed having non-sworn community service officers replace sworn officers at certain scenes.

MPD is considering another strategy to pursue repeat violators in civil court that would allow the department to impound vehicles or jail frequent offenders.

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Related Legislation: FPC21420