Georgia Police Evaluating Licence Plate Reading Technology

Police in Alpharetta, GA are 5 months into a 6 month evaluation of new police technology. This came as quite a suprise to a man who was stopped for driving a stolen truck, and had no idea how he was found. The answer was the automatic license plate reader inside the police vehicle, which had scanned his license plate, and identified it as stolen.

The system works by videocameras scanning licence plates, and having a computer use optical character recognition software to translate the images into letters and numbers. From there, the plate number is compared with databases of flagged plates that can come from law enforcement agencies or the Georgia DDS.

The implications of this license plate scanning system are significant.  These licence plate scanning systems can identify far more than stolen vehicles. They can be adapted for use in identifying any means to isolate a vehicle that may be of interest to police for tracking purposes. When connected to nationwide DMV or DDS databases, they can also be matched with vehicle owner records, and flag drivers known to have outstanding criminal warrants for failure to appear, or be driving on a suspended driver’s license.

These new passive tracking and scanning systems make it much more difficult to get away with a failure to appear in court that generates a criminal warrant. And it makes it much more dangerous to attempt to drive while your license is under suspension.

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If you are facing criminal charges for failure to appear, driving on a suspended license, or any other criminal offense in Georgia, please contact us for a free case evaluation. There’s no obligation, and we can offer you some suggestions on your best opportunities to beat your case in court.

Tragic Case with No Good Options

A protest for what a Bruinswick Georgia hit and run victim’s friends and family believe was a unfairly light sentence was held yesterday.  The rally is to protest the plea deal made by the prosecutors who dismissed the vehicular homicide charge, and sentenced the man to a 6 year prison term, the maximum sentence for a hit and run involving the death of the victim.

The officers originally arrested the man for homicide by vehicle, hit and run, DUI, as well as driving on a suspended license. The hit and run charge seems like the only one that they could definitively prove, since it was not disputed that the man did not stop after hitting the victim on his bicycle, so they got the maximum penalty allowed for that charge.

Proving vehicular homicide charges would have been difficult, since the investigation showed it could have very easily been an accident. The victim was riding his bicycle in a traffic lane at night, with a dark clothes and no reflectors or lights on the bike. He was also found to have marijuana in his system.

It also does not appear to be clear that alcohol was a factor in the accident. No blood test was taken due to a mistake by the police, and no other clear evidence was cited to establish that the defendant had be driving under the infuence.

Under the facts cited, it certainly sounds like the prosecution got the strongest punishment they thought they could get. While is is understandable that the victims family and friends are upset about the results, plea bargains are critical to the system, and allow for both sides to make deals that are in the best interests of justice and fairness for everyone.

If there were no plea agreements, the criminal court system would grind to a halt, as every case would have to go to a trial in search of the maximum penalties. Cases would take years to resolve, holding everone’s lives in place indefinitely. Plus in many cases, the prosecution would lose, and the defendant would go free on a charge where he might have plead guilty to a lesser penalty. The plea bargain system is ultimately beneficial to everyone.

But that is understandably little comfort to a grieving family.

Enhanced Penalties for Drunk Driving in Georgia

A bill expected to be signed by Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue would stiffen penalties for those convicted of multiple drunk driving offenses. Currently, Georgia’s DUI laws are considered some of the weakest in the nation, when it comes to people with prior DUI convictions.

Under the proposed new laws, a 4th DUI offense within 10 years would be a felony charge, with penalties of up to 5 years in prison.

The penalty for a 2nd offense conviction would include a mandatory clinical evaluation for alcohol or drug abuse, as a means to reduce the likelihood of chronic substance abusers committing DUI offenses in the future.

In addition, the bill would also increase the window in which prior offenses enhance the serious of a current offense from 5 to 10 years. So, any drunk driving/DUI convictions within the previous 10 years would be considered priors for sentencing purposes.

If you are facing a DUI charge in Georgia, please contact us for a criminal defense case evaluation and legal consultation as to your defense options and rights under the law.

Successful Georgia Public Defender Program Challenged in Political Climate

Here is a fascinating article on a successful Georgia state program that was able to allow for decent legal representation for poor and indigent Georgia citizens. After being neglected and frequently railroaded for years, poor people finally got a chance to have decent legal representation, particularly in death penalty cases.

However, now that successful program is being dramatically underfunded for political reasons. The current Georgia governor is a strong death penalty advocate, and is playing political games with this program to increase convictions.

Ironically though, the current state of of under-representation for these defendants, due to reducing the program presents legal and constitutional challenges to getting convictions in the first place.

If you need a criminal defense lawyer in Georgia, please contact our attorneys for a consultation.

Potential Criminal Reform Legislation to Expire Today?

Tuesday, 3/11/08 was the date when a lot of proposed legislation can expire under the rules of the legislature. If No activity takes place in the first 30 days of a legislative session in Georgia, a bill can be passed in the current session.

One current bill that is under the gun would reform Georgia criminal procedures that govern how lineups are done in police stations to require stricter standards for eyewitnesses making identifications of defendants in criminal cases.

The proposed bill is a response to the increased mis-identification of alleged criminal by witnesses, in light of the increased exonerations after the fact, when DNA evidence is checked.  Historically, witness IDs are not hugely reliable, and are easily influenced if the process isn’t done carefully. Human memory is surprisingly fallible and malleable, and in criminal cases where the evidence relies heavily on an eyewitness, we need to be double sure of the validity of the process.

More info on the bill, and Georgia legal procedures here.