The licenses of New York drivers can be suspended for many reasons, like driving while intoxicated or driving without insurance. But a coalition of advocacy groups says that more than half of licenses are suspended because the driver could not afford to pay a traffic ticket or failed to show up in court.
Between January 2016 and April 2018, the state issued nearly 1.7 million license suspensions for an inability to pay, according to the Driven By Justice Coalition. It says that those suspensions disproportionately affect members of low-income communities where traffic tickets originate.
"These would include speeding tickets, but also tinted windows, seat belt violations, broken tail lights," said Claudia Wilner, senior attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, to WNYC's Jami Floyd. "These kinds of violations are very common in low-income communities of color where police are patrolling frequently and often ticketing people very aggressively."
Suspending licenses because of an inability to pay is not always related to maintaining public safety, according to Wilner. New York has a point system for suspending a driver's license based on certain violations accrued within a short time span. If a driver cannot pay a fine for a single ticket, however, their license is suspended almost automatically.
"People all over the income spectrum get tickets," said Wilner. "For a person that has the money to pay, they are able to pay and move on. But a person who just doesn't have the money, they can't pay and move on. They don't have that choice."
The Driven By Justice Coalition is lobbying New York lawmakers to pass a bill that would stop the practice of license suspension based on inability to pay or failure to appear in court. The legislation would also allow drivers to pay their tickets on a scale that is related to their income, and provide them with more notifications of their court appearances.
Several states, including Montana, Mississippi, Idaho, and California, plus the District of Columbia, have passed similar legislation.