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The thing that kills me is the fact that if you are driving your own car, the police already know who you are and if you have a license when you get pulled over

The thing that kills me is the fact that if you are driving your own car, the police already know who you are and if you have a license when you get pulled over. The whole requirement to have a card on you is bogus bullshit, and only serves to make you a criminal if you happen to forget it. If you drive the car of a person who has a suspended license, you will get pulled over. Their ALPR system will automatically flag you, and the officer will tell you that he ran your plates and pulled you over because the owner has a suspended license. That might be a good time to have a physical ID on you to prove you're not the owner. BUT at the same time, if you know your DL number, or even your name and address, there's no reason the cops can't look you up to verify who you are.

kelnos 6y ago
> The thing that kills me is the fact that if you are driving your own car, the police already know who you are and if you have a license when you get pulled over. The whole requirement to have a card on you is bogus bullshit, and only serves to make you a criminal if you happen to forget it. It seems pretty common to loan a car to a friend, or to use a car registered to another family member, or to rent a car form either a traditional rental company or a service like Turo. In those instances they have no idea who you are. > If you drive the car of a person who has a suspended license, you will get pulled over. Their ALPR system will automatically flag you, and the officer will tell you that he ran your plates and pulled you over because the owner has a suspended license. I don't find that unreasonable at all. And that's a fine counterexample to your original complaint; in this case it's good that you have a license that you can produce to prove you're not the owner with the suspended license. > BUT at the same time, if you know your DL number, or even your name and address, there's no reason the cops can't look you up to verify who you are. There are all sorts of ways to defeat that. Perhaps you give your sibling's name and address, and your photos look close enough that you get away with it. And why would I bother to memorize my DL number? It's far easier to just carry the card. These sorts of systems and processes are designed to avoid loopholes and make things more certain for the cop. Asking a cop to "just trust you" based on self-provided information also just begs them to decide based on their unconscious (or conscious) biases, which reduces justice for anyone who happens to be a member of an often-discriminated-against group. I think cops should try to be flexible and give people the benefit of the doubt when it's appropriate to do so, but deciding when that's the case isn't always easy, so I'd rather we just require people to carry their license with them when they drive. It's not hard, and if you're going to be assuming responsibility for a one-ton metal and plastic ballistic object traveling fast enough to kill, then you damn well can also take on the responsibility for carrying a physical license. Regardless, out of all the things that the government does that's shady and reeks of wanting to control people's lives, requiring you to carry around a little card with you when you drive a car is not even in the top 100 for me.

kelnos 6y ago

> The thing that kills me is the fact that if you are driving your own car, the police already know who you are and if you have a license when you get pulled over. The whole requirement to have a card on you is bogus bullshit, and only serves to make you a criminal if you happen to forget it. It seems pretty common to loan a car to a friend, or to use a car registered to another family member, or to rent a car form either a traditional rental company or a service like Turo. In those instances they have no idea who you are. > If you drive the car of a person who has a suspended license, you will get pulled over. Their ALPR system will automatically flag you, and the officer will tell you that he ran your plates and pulled you over because the owner has a suspended license. I don't find that unreasonable at all. And that's a fine counterexample to your original complaint; in this case it's good that you have a license that you can produce to prove you're not the owner with the suspended license. > BUT at the same time, if you know your DL number, or even your name and address, there's no reason the cops can't look you up to verify who you are. There are all sorts of ways to defeat that. Perhaps you give your sibling's name and address, and your photos look close enough that you get away with it. And why would I bother to memorize my DL number? It's far easier to just carry the card. These sorts of systems and processes are designed to avoid loopholes and make things more certain for the cop. Asking a cop to "just trust you" based on self-provided information also just begs them to decide based on their unconscious (or conscious) biases, which reduces justice for anyone who happens to be a member of an often-discriminated-against group. I think cops should try to be flexible and give people the benefit of the doubt when it's appropriate to do so, but deciding when that's the case isn't always easy, so I'd rather we just require people to carry their license with them when they drive. It's not hard, and if you're going to be assuming responsibility for a one-ton metal and plastic ballistic object traveling fast enough to kill, then you damn well can also take on the responsibility for carrying a physical license. Regardless, out of all the things that the government does that's shady and reeks of wanting to control people's lives, requiring you to carry around a little card with you when you drive a car is not even in the top 100 for me.