Failure to produce Vehicle Registration

[Sainters7]

Yeah the traffic courts are usually good (in my experience anyway) for knocking off roughly half the price of the ticket. The only downside really, is I'm not sure they'll knock more off than usual due to your situation.

I went to court for the same reason (except in this case mine really was expired, I just wanted a reduction), and the prosecutor didn't even ask me what happened. She just instantly knocked off half the price when I said what my ticket was for, didn't even care to hear my reason or if I felt I was innocent or guilty. So unfortunately you probably won't do much better than that. But it's something anyway..

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by GGG

The risk of insurance not being in my car and getting a ticket is far greater

If I'm driving I always have my wallet on me. So my insurance is always in my car. No different then having my license in my wallet. Don't see any risk of not having my insurance on me.

As far as it being 'worth worrying about', it's not something I worry about. I've spent more time thinking about it while posting in this thread than I ever have before. It's just something I simply do.

For the risk of your house being entered via a garage door opener, it happens a lot. Sure insurance covers everything, but I'd rather not take a month of riding out of summer while I wait for insurance to replace my bike, or anything else. Sounds like a lot of hassle.

http://vancouversun.com/news/crime/s...e-door-openers

http://www.albertapolicereport.ca/20...ss-used-in-bc/

http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/...-south-calgary

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...-ins-1.1095298

[jammies]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

Well since licence plates can be very easily stolen, no. And not all law enforcement carry computers. How hard is it really to have your insurance and registration in that little pouch in the glove box? It really is part of the responsibility of owning a car.

When they look up your license plate, they can see the make, model and year of the vehicle. And registered owner, for that matter. I'm pretty sure that discovers a stolen license plate without having to see the registration . So really this is a tax on people like CHL who spend too much time arguing on the internet instead of making sure they have their documents with them.

I am impartial on this as I don't even own a car. It makes me morally superior, kind of like a vegan, except not sickly and pale. Far as I'm concerned, the police should just randomly stop and beat you if you drive anything larger than a moped, since you're part of the global warming problem causing all these thunderstorms.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by GGG

This to me crosses over into reasons I have insurance. It's something not worth worrying about

From a risk point of view it doesn't make sense either. The risk of insurance not being in my car and getting a ticket is far greater than it getting stolen and the stolen person then going to rob your house.

Also the risk of losing your wallet it getting pickpocket is probably greater than your insurance getting stolen from your car

I've never had my wallet stolen. I have had my car broken into. I think more cars are broken into than people pick-pocketed, but maybe your lifestyle is different than mine. There was something in the news awhile ago about people breaking into cars at airport parking lots, stealing registrations and garage door openers, and robbing houses while the people were gone.

Having dealt with insurance a couple times now, the argument that "oh well, insurance will cover it" holds no water with me. They might, but with a huge headache first. I'd rather do some simple prevention.

[TorqueDog]

Wanna know how I check my insurance policy? I call and I give the nice man or woman on the phone a number. They enter that number, ask some basic identification questions, and continue with my request.

When I call my bank, I give them a number -- either a card or account number -- then they ask some identification questions, then carry on with my request.

Neither one of those institutions say "Can you please show us a picture of your pink card or bank card to prove you have a policy / account with us?" at any time.

Our vehicles have number plates, I carry photo identification linked to my number plate and registration. Look it up on a computer. There's no reason we still have to carry around a document or be fined for not having it. It's time to bring vehicle registration and law enforcement into the 21st century already.

[btimbit]

Cops don't even have access to insurance info. To confirm the info on your pink card, they have to call the insurance company and ask about it. That just seems odd to me

[4X4]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Wanna know how I check my insurance policy? I call and I give the nice man or woman on the phone a number. They enter that number, ask some basic identification questions, and continue with my request.

When I call my bank, I give them a number -- either a card or account number -- then they ask some identification questions, then carry on with my request.

Neither one of those institutions say "Can you please show us a picture of your pink card or bank card to prove you have a policy / account with us?" at any time.

Our vehicles have number plates, I carry photo identification linked to my number plate and registration. Look it up on a computer. There's no reason we still have to carry around a document or be fined for not having it. It's time to bring vehicle registration and law enforcement into the 21st century already.

lol. The police giving up something they can fine the public for? That's as amusing as the CPS announcement a couple weeks ago that they're hiring 50 more officers. And it wont cost taxpayers anything, because they're going to make it up by using revenue from traffic tickets.

But I totally agree with you nonetheless. It's pretty outdated that we have to carry registration. It should be a computer based thing (insurance should be too), so that it's real time information.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Our vehicles have number plates, I carry photo identification linked to my number plate and registration. Look it up on a computer. There's no reason we still have to carry around a document or be fined for not having it. It's time to bring vehicle registration and law enforcement into the 21st century already.

My vehicle is registered to my wife, despite that in the 7 years I've owned it, she's driven it less than 10 times total. Everything's in her name, but I drive it. I look nothing like my wife, nor do we share a last name. I need the vehicle registration.

A lot of people now register their vehicles to their personal company. Or drive a company vehicle. They need registration.

Your vehicle is registered to you and primarily driven by you. This is not the case often enough to be an issue.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

My vehicle is registered to my wife, despite that in the 7 years I've owned it, she's driven it less than 10 times total. Everything's in her name, but I drive it. I look nothing like my wife, nor do we share a last name. I need the vehicle registration.

A lot of people now register their vehicles to their personal company. Or drive a company vehicle. They need registration.

Your vehicle is registered to you and primarily driven by you. This is not the case often enough to be an issue.

How does a paper copy change anything? It still says your wife's name on your registration. Only difference is that you have it in your hand instead of the police officer pulling it up on his computer.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Cops don't even have access to insurance info. To confirm the info on your pink card, they have to call the insurance company and ask about it. That just seems odd to me

Yes, they have access to the insurance info. It is in their system and they can look it up.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by 4X4

How does a paper copy change anything? It still says your wife's name on your registration. Only difference is that you have it in your hand instead of the police officer pulling it up on his computer.

Officially issued and still hard(er) to fake than an electronic copy on someone's phone.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

Officially issued and still hard(er) to fake than an electronic copy on someone's phone.

Please re-read my post. The whole thing. Specifically the part where the cop uses his computer, not the driver's phone.

[BlackArcher101]

The reason they still want you to have paper copies of registration and insurance in your car is for the times you need them when not interacting with someone who can look it up, ie, need to trade info when in an accident. It's a legal document required by law to be in your vehicle, similar to your drivers license. Police also have access to that, but for some reason people don't complain about having to keep that on them as well. I don't know why having two pieces of paper in a car can be so troublesome for some, enough to even argue about it.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

The difference with the license is, they don't have the ability to look up your photo, so someone could impersonate you. Unless something has changed via improved technology recently, which is possible.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Yes, they have access to the insurance info. It is in their system and they can look it up.

Only if the company actually sends info to the police, which not all do (and not on a regular basis.) It's rarely up to date.

There's a huge problem with people who set it up to pay month to month, then stop paying. Even if they get pulled over they get away with it because the pink card still says expiration is x amount of months away even though they no longer have coverage.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

The reason they still want you to have paper copies of registration and insurance in your car is for the times you need them when not interacting with someone who can look it up, ie, need to trade info when in an accident. It's a legal document required by law to be in your vehicle, similar to your drivers license. Police also have access to that, but for some reason people don't complain about having to keep that on them as well. I don't know why having two pieces of paper in a car can be so troublesome for some, enough to even argue about it.

The first bold: That's something I didn't think about. Good point.
Second bold: For the same reason I don't want to leave bank statements or love letters to my ex, car gets ransacked, and stuff I don;t want out in the world, is now out in the world. The garage door opener + registration is reason #1 though.

Originally Posted by btimbit

Only if the company actually sends info to the police, which not all do (and not on a regular basis.) It's rarely up to date.

There's a huge problem with people who set it up to pay month to month, then stop paying. Even if they get pulled over they get away with it because the pink card still says expiration is x amount of months away even though they no longer have coverage.

This is the big reason why I think it's almost archaic that the police supposedly need a couple pieces of paper to prove insurance and registration. I used to know one guy who thought it was hilarious that he would pay for one month, get the pink slips, and then stop paying. Also knew another guy who simply didn;t have insurance, but he had the same name as his dad, and the same vehicle description, and used that to register.

But really, this ins't a huge deal. I barely care. I think the reason this thread is taking off is because it's kind of lame that the police ticket you for something they don;t actually need. However, I will again concede that BA makes a pretty good point about info exchange in the case of an accident.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Yes, they have access to the insurance info. It is in their system and they can look it up.

If they call in and specifically ask. The MDTs in the cars don't link into the computer systems from insurance companies. Nor can CPIC access it.

Also, when they run your plate, it's not only the registered owner that shows up. On my ride along we ran my parents plate and there are some interesting people who share my dad's name. At the time it was explained to me that it will query the ROs name and return results based on that, ranked on risk.

[OzSome]

Depending on the cops that pulled you over or also depending on your attitude, cops usually gives you 24 hours to produce your registrations and your pink slip. If you produce them they cancel the ticket but if you don't, ticket stays. My former boss got pulled over on a Friday night and he couldn't show the current pink slip but he does his old one which doesn't help anyways. We had to call the insurance the next morning and received the current one via fax. Called the cop and he ended up going to district police to show the pink slip and ticket were cancelled.

[jar_e]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Yes, they have access to the insurance info. It is in their system and they can look it up.

This is not true in Calgary.

Originally Posted by OzSome

Depending on the cops that pulled you over or also depending on your attitude, cops usually gives you 24 hours to produce your registrations and your pink slip. If you produce them they cancel the ticket but if you don't, ticket stays. My former boss got pulled over on a Friday night and he couldn't show the current pink slip but he does his old one which doesn't help anyways. We had to call the insurance the next morning and received the current one via fax. Called the cop and he ended up going to district police to show the pink slip and ticket were cancelled.

Was this in Calgary? And how long ago was this? This is so incredibly rare and so far from the norm nowadays that I'd be shocked if it was here. Though definitely other agencies are a lot more receptive to it.

[Philly06Cup]

"This is the law. Follow it"

For many people, this is fine. They are conditioned to behave in line with authority. In this case, the request is very easy to follow (keep two stupid slips of paper with you while driving)

However, there are people who want to challenge the law. All laws. Laws restrict our freedoms -- our constitutional freedoms, dammit -- so they should only exist if required and necessary. Outside of BlackArchers point, there hasn't been any justification on why this law exists.

Can you fight your ticket? I say go for it. Battle that it is unconstitutional. Get your essay ready. Do research -- see if anyone else has tried.