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Los Angeles is just the latest city to alter policies on impounding cars in response to complaints from immigrant rights advocates, who are now pressing the state and L.A. County to do the same.By Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times8:44 PM PDT, March 13, 2011Los Angeles police last week joined a growing list of law enforcement agencies across the state in changing policies for impounding vehicles of unlicensed drivers, a shift prompted by complaints that illegal immigrants were being unfairly targeted at DUI checkpoints.For years, activists and some city officials have charged that police are increasingly punishing illegal immigrants who cannot get driver's licenses by towing and sometimes impounding their cars for 30 days. Once a car is impounded, fees to release the vehicles can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars."We don't think the police should be able to take people's cars away because they don't have proper paper work," said Julia Wallace of the South Central Neighborhood Council, which pushed the city of Los Angeles to change its policies. "The punishment doesn't fit the crime."On Friday, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said that police would be required to try to contact the registered owner of a vehicle stopped at a checkpoint. If the owner is licensed and can arrive in a reasonable amount of time, the car will not be impounded. If the owner is unlicensed, but a licensed driver is in the car, that person may be permitted to take it."This is the right thing to do," Beck said. "There's a fairness issue here."
"We don't think the police should be able to take people's cars away because they don't have proper paper work," said Julia Wallace of the South Central Neighborhood Council, which pushed the city of Los Angeles to change its policies. "The punishment doesn't fit the crime."
