Police can determine insurance validity by running license plate

Bay County Deputy Josh Rytlewski sits in his patrol vehicle to demonstrate the in-car computer system. As of Wednesday, Nov. 12, police throughout the state can determine if a motor vehicle has insurance simply by running its license plate.

(Yfat Yossifor | The Bay City Times)

BAY COUNTY, MI -- Police now have an easier way of telling if you are riding dirty on the streets of Michigan.

As of mid-September, police throughout the state can determine if a motor vehicle is properly insured simply by running its license plate.

"When they run a license plate on an in-car computer, it will tell them if the driver of the vehicle has insurance that's valid or not," said Bay County Undersheriff Troy Cunningham. "It doesn't apply to motorcycles or commercial vehicles at this time."

Michigan State Police 1st Lt. David Simon, commander of the Tri-City Post in Bay County's Williams Township, also said the new technology has led to his troopers issuing more tickets with greater ease.

"It is convenient and it's nice for the officers to verify if someone's got insurance or not. It's one more thing we can do at a traffic stop or at a crash."

The 1st and 15th of each month, insurance companies submit reports to the Michigan Secretary of State detailing who is insured, Cunningham said. Bay County District Magistrate Janice Doner said that has been in place for some time, but the information was not immediately available to police through the Law Enforcement Information Network, or LEIN.

"The only issue with it is, the insurance companies are only required to transmit policy information to the Secretary of State twice a month, so it's not real-time information," said Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shanon Banner. "We do have this new ability, but for instance, for the Michigan State Police, our department policy indicates that this electronic insurance verification should not be used as the primary reason for a traffic stop. It's kind of a first step. It helps them in the investigative process. If someone says they have insurance, they could have applied for it in the last 15 days. It's very likely to return a 'no' and in fact they have insurance."

Between Sept. 13, 2013, and March 25, 2014, state troopers issued 8,664 citations to motorists who had no proof of insurance. By contrast, between Sept. 13, 2014, and March 25, 2015, troopers issued 10,009 such citations, Banner said.

"This is an increase of 1,345 citations; however, it should be noted there was also an increase of approximately 100 troopers from 2013 to 2014," Banner said.

The technology became available to law enforcement in Bay County in November.

"Since it became available in November, we've definitely seen an increase in no-insurance charges," Doner said.

Driving without insurance is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of $200 to $500, plus court costs, Doner said. Guilty parties are also subject to a driver responsibility fee of $500 per year for two years.

Not having proof of insurance when pulled over by police is a $143 civil infraction, Doner said. However, if a person gets such a citation and comes to the courthouse with documentation proving they were insured on the day in question, the penalty is knocked down to $25.

"We've had less no-proof and more no-insurance charges because of (officers') verification," the magistrate said. "I know officers just run a plate, see there is no insurance, and then they're stopping them. I don't think the public knows about it."

Both Cunningham and Doner agreed that since Nov. 12 -- the day the new system was put into place in Bay County -- the sheer number of charges issued to those driving without insurance has significantly increased.

"We used to arraign no-insurances here and there and now I'm just getting them in groups," the magistrate said. "Six to 10 people at walk-in arraignments are all here for no-insurance. That just never used to happen."

"We've seen a big influx in the tickets," Cunningham added. "There's a lot of motorists that are uninsured driving around Bay County."

From Nov. 12, 2013, through March 27, 2014, police in Bay County issued 106 citations for driving without insurance. Comparatively, from Nov. 12, 2014, through March 27, 2015, police issued 419 such citations, according to numbers provided by Doner.

"That's huge," she said after pulling the figures. "It's quadrupled. We were very surprised. We knew it had gone up, but we hadn't looked at the numbers until (now)."