When they have to negotiate and call and get on a payment plan, that’s clerk time. When they show up in court, that’s court time. “When they get arrested, that’s jail time. When someone with a suspended license gets pulled over, “that’s police time,” Mr. One New Mexico county spends $1.17 on collections for every dollar it collects. In Miami-Dade, he said, just 11% of fines and fees are collected within 15 months of issuance. That, he said, causes a “debt spiral” that particularly impacts Black residents, who comprise 59% of people arrested for driving with a suspended license.Ĭurrent practices lose money too, according to a November 2019 Brennan Center for Justice study that found that in Texas, Florida and New Mexico combined, governments are owed $1.9 billion in outstanding fines and fees. Levine referred to a broadly cited New Jersey study reporting that 42% of people whose licenses were suspended lost their jobs afterward. While those arrested for intoxicated driving can get hardship licenses to drive to and from work, no such provision can aid people who can’t pay fines, most of which – 72% in Florida – aren’t connected to unsafe driving, the Justice Center found. “In fact, we’re actually suspending 125 times more people for not paying fines than we are for dangerous driving,” he said. Levine said the vast majority of suspended licenses aren’t for bad driving but for not paying fines. In a July 15 presentation to the Community Disparities Subcommittee, which Ms.

“That’s a huge percentage of our drivers,” said Eileen Higgins, the commissioner backing the task force.īecause those who can more easily pay fees often do, poorer populations are disproportionately affected, said Harris Levine of Ker-Twang, a company which its website says is “working to increase the number, quality and availability of meaningful services for low-income people.” That’s more than double the suspended licenses here cited in a 2017 report from the nonpartisan Fines and Fees Justice Center. About a third of Miami-Dade’s 2 million licensed drivers, 665,307, have suspended licenses, according to the most recently figures from the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court Administrator’s Office. Among its duties: reviewing court-related fines and fees tied to driver license suspensions and the costs and success of collecting money, seeking public and expert input, and researching what’s been done about the issue elsewhere.Īnd it is a big issue. 6 are to decide whether to create a Driver License Suspension Task Force. A new team could soon be looking at easing driver license suspensions in Miami-Dade, which proponents say will benefit residents’ wallets and government coffers.Ĭounty commissioners Oct.

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