Roadblock insurance tickets in question
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 10, 2001
Vicksburg Police K-9 Unit Officer Jay Ghrigsby stops motorists on Old Highway 27 Tuesday asking for their driver’s licenses and proof of insurance. Three citations were handed out in 45 minutes. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)
[01/10/01] A Vicksburg police officer who waved cars over Tuesday to check for liability insurance cards may not have been following the law, his bosses said.
K-9 Officer Jay Ghrigsby gave out three tickets in about 45 minutes to motorists for failing to present proof of insurance, but the statute that went into effect Jan. 1 requiring Mississippi drivers to have proof of liability coverage available, limits how and when citations can be issued.
K-9 supervisor Lt. Robert Stewart said police may have to throw out two of the citations.
“There is some question and we are checking with the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol,” Stewart said.
The applicable part of the two-page law reads: “Upon stopping a motor vehicle for any other statutory violation, a law enforcement officer, who is authorized to issue traffic citations, shall verify that the insurance card required by this section is in the motor vehicle. However, no driver shall be stopped or detained solely for the purpose of verifying that an insurance card is in the vehicle.”
Out of the three citations issued by Ghrigsby, one was in connection with another violation and complies with the statute, Stewart said. The remaining two were not along with any other violation and may not meet with the requirements of the law.
“What we were doing is a safety inspection checking for driver’s licenses, inspection stickers and tags,” Stewart said.
Vicksburg Police Chief Mitchell Dent said his understanding of the law is that safety inspections could not be used to check for insurance cards.
“The law says we are to check in connection with another moving violation,” Dent said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said that police can use traffic stops to check for various violations such as sobriety, but has shot down other attempts to use roadblocks to detain motorists for searches. In a recent case, the high court said that police could not use drug dogs at roadblocks without some provocation to conduct a search.
Under provisions of the statute that went into effect at the beginning of this year, law enforcement officers are to verify proof of insurance when stopping motorists for other violations.
“Generally, any second violation can be written at a roadblock,” Stewart said.
Second violations include laws such as the seat belt law that prohibited police from pulling people over without another reason to stop the driver, he explained, but he said that at a roadblock, officers can issue a ticket to someone who is not wearing a seat belt.
Mike Lanford, head of the opinions division with the State Attorney General’s Office, agreed that police could ask for proof of insurance when checking driver’s licenses at a roadblock, but said it was not clear if a citation could be issued when there is no other violation.
“It’s just something we haven’t looked at yet,” Lanford said.
Drivers failing to show proof of insurance can face up to $1,000 in fines for failing to provide proof of insurance. During the first week, Vicksburg police had issued eight tickets and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department had issued one for failure to present insurance cards.
Minimum coverage under the state law is $10,000 per person, $20,000 for bodily injury and $5,000 for property damages.
The new statute says fines can be reduced to $100 for a ticketed driver who later buys a liability policy and tickets can be voided for a driver who has insurance at the time of the ticketing, but doesn’t have the card.