Committee quickly approves reckless driving measure allowing impounding of vehicles

Within weeks of a new state law making it possible, a city committee Thursday quickly recommended the Milwaukee Common Council pass an ordinance allowing police to impound cars involved in reckless driving under certain circumstances.

The five members of the Public Safety and Health Committee unanimously approved the drafted ordinance after 20 minutes of discussion, with two members declaring they wished the recently passed state law allowed for broader opportunities to impound the vehicles of reckless drivers.

“As Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic’s questions brought up the point that this doesn’t do as much as maybe I would hope,” Ald. Scott Spiker said. “I would be happy if they would have a more expansive conception – as I said I would be happy to impound reckless drivers – but this is the max we could do.”

Proposal addresses fines' lack of effectiveness

The proposed ordinance is fairly narrow in its circumstances for impounding the cars of reckless drivers. But coupled with two other similar measures city officials took last year to prevent drivers from continuously flouting traffic rules, the legislation would expand the city’s newfound ability to effectively confiscate vehicles that are driven recklessly.

The matter will now go before the Common Council, which is next scheduled to meet May 9, and is expected to be approved.

The ordinance was drafted in response to a state law signed by Gov. Evers on April 3, which allows municipalities to impound vehicles used in reckless driving offenses under three conditions: the driver is the owner of the vehicle; the driver has a prior conviction of reckless driving; and the driver has not fully paid the fines associated with the previous conviction.

The legislation also allows the city to dispose of any unclaimed, impounded vehicle 90 days after the reckless driving citations is issued if the fines aren’t paid for.

From 2021 to 2022, the city more than doubled its municipal citations for reckless driving – from 263 to 612, according to city records. But 82% of those 2022 tickets haven’t been fully paid, according to Katie Jaeger of the city's Intergovernmental Relations Division.

Alder says city is 'desperate'

As the alders considered the ordinance Thursday, they repeated sentiments that were also expressed by members of the Fire and Police Commission, the Milwaukee Police Department and Mayor Cavalier Johnson last year as similar measures were imposed.

They wished they didn’t have to go so far as to take away someone’s car away, and they acknowledged the measure will not solve the issue, but it’s a tool they need to make Milwaukee streets safer, they said.

“This isn’t a magical bullet at all,” Ald. Khalif Rainey said. “We’re desperate to save someone’s life out here in the city of Milwaukee. People are careless, selfish out here on the road.”

Over the last decade, reckless driving has emerged as one of, if not the most, important public safety and quality of life issue in Milwaukee. The county set a new record in 2020 for traffic deaths; polling ranks the issue as one that residents are most concerned about; and officials have continuously railed about reckless drivers taking their citations and not changing their behavior.

That’s led to ramped up enforcement tactics.

City began towing vehicles in 2022 under two other policies

Just 12 months ago, the city was not in the business of forcibly taking away vehicles for reasons concerning reckless driving. But if the Common Council approves of the legislation recommended to them Thursday, it will be the third measure officials have taken since May of 2022 to separate reckless drivers from their cars.

That month, after receiving approval from the Fire and Police Commission, police began towing vehicles that lacked license plates while engaging in one of four offenses: reckless driving, speeding 25 mph above the limit, fleeing police or racing.

Since then, the city has towed 261 cars under that policy, according to police.

The following July, the city announced it was willing to take its worst reckless drivers to civil court, where they could potentially lose their car.

The strategy – similar to how local governments seize a residential property when it’s deemed a chronic location of drug dealing, illegal alcohol sales or other nuisances – involves getting a judge to declare the behavior a public nuisance and order the driver to stop. The potential penalties for failure to abide by the court order includes losing their vehicle.

The city has since filed just two such lawsuits.

The first came in July against a man who stacked up 44 traffic-related citations in the city since 2017, and 14 through the first six months of 2022. The second came the following November against another man who amassed 37 citations since 2017 and 13 in 2022 alone.

But officials have acknowledged those tactics will not solve reckless driving. Larger-scale efforts to influence safe driving in Milwaukee include better street design and the creation of a dedicated traffic enforcement unit.

The city announced 50 traffic-calming projects for 2023. In February 2021, the Milwaukee Police Department created the Traffic Safety Unit, which saturates different areas of the city to increase visibility of traffic enforcement.

This article has been corrected to reflect Katie Jaeger's correct job description.

Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee officials recommend proposal to impound recklessly driven cars