Is this a case of diligent police officers doing their job? Or, are the cops just getting carried away - and IL Municipalities just seeking more revenue?
Or . . . is the motive even a bit sinister?
According to Dan Simmons, as reported in last Sunday's Chicago Tribune, within the last five years, the number of IL drivers stopped by police for breaking the obscure, somewhat subjective law prohibiting "Windshield Obstructions" has increased 91%. In 2009, roughly 38,000 motorists are expected to receive warnings or citations.
A few police officers defend the law, saying its enforcement makes driving safer. According to IL Law, only government-issued items - such as city revenue and parking stickers, or the I-PASS IL Tollway Transponders, are legal. Last week, Simmons counted cars in the parking lot of the Schaumburg Transportation Center, and found 20 out of 48 had windshield obstructions some police might identify as violations.
But civil rights advocates contend the infraction is merely an excuse to pull over suspect drivers and perform a more thorough search of the vehicle.
Timothy O'Neill, Law Professor at John Marshall Law School in The Chicago Loop, says many of the drivers pulled over for what he considers "trivial offenses" are minorities. He cited a 2008 review of all traffic citations and warnings issued which showed that minority drivers are 13% more likely to be pulled over than non-minorities, and were 8% more likely to receive a ticket.
Downstate IL State Senator Dale Righter goes so far as to suggest the unwritten intent of the windshield obstruction law, and others like it, is to offer police an opportunity to uncover potentially more serious offenses. Righer, a former IL Prosecutor, indicated that many of his criminal prosecutions followed police searches on drivers pulled over for minor infractions.
The broadness of the law concerns many. Last April, an IL Appeals Court threw out the conviction of a downstate woman for possession of a prescription anti-depressant drug, after she was stopped on the grounds of having a small tree-shaped car deodorizer hanging from her rear-view mirror. The court said the sheriff's deputy who stopped the woman failed to identify "reasonable suspicion" that the deodorizer would obstruct the driver's line of vision.
In neighboring MI, the State Senate last month voted overwhelmingly to overturn their own law against items hanging from the driver's rear view mirror. It is now before the MI State House. The Michigan law is very similar to that of Illinois.
Technically, GPS Systems mounted by suction cup on a car's windshield present an infraction. Or those little suction cup note pads. So can Rosary Beads. One MI State Law Maker's daughter got pulled over in Suburban Detroit for having a string hanging from her mirror. She contended she didn't even know the string was hanging off the mirror.
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