If you travel the Las Vegas valley roads, you've probably had those moments when it seems like you're surrounded by bad drivers. It may not be your imagination. Clark County courts estimate some 100,000 people have outstanding traffic warrants, and they owe more than $100 million.
That kind of cash owed to any municipality is no laughing matter -- especially in these tough times. Just ask the guys who now have to collect it.
Consider Sgt. Robert Wyant with the Las Vegas Township Constable's Office. He gives a friendly reminder to one driver about a traffic stop in 2005 and another 2006. "You have those five offenses -- registration, insurance, driving without a license, suspended license, no seat belts, and 2005, speeding," he said.
And by friendly, it's bordering bill collector cordial. "What do you think you can come up with?" he asks.
But in addition to a hit on your credit report, the consequence Sgt. Wyant wields is your liberty. "Technically, what it is, you pay or we take you to jail to go in front of a judge," he said.
The driver owes nearly $4,000 in fines and fees, significantly more than the average citation yet a fraction of the total amount currently due the courts.
Ed Friedland is the newly appointed court executive officer. "I went back and said, ‘Go run the numbers again. It can't be $140 million.' But it is $140 million," he said.
$140 million is the combined total of outstanding traffic warrants accumulated over 15 years. The bulk of it is between 2006 and 2008 when an effort to modernize the traffic division had the cliché result of many bureaucratic computer upgrades.
"Nobody really planned for the volume. So what happened then, people started showing up, paying or paying online and behind the scenes, the staff now was doing as the people were waiting there, went to a four week delay in just processing paperwork behind the counter," said Friedland.
The cumbersome system also severed a critical link between the courts and other law enforcement databases, leaving the traffic division with no way to clear warrants in real time.
Rather than risk the arrest of a driver in good standing, in 2006 the courts suspended all traffic warrants. "I don't think at the time it was addressed or looked at. The people making the decisions at that point they looked at the whole picture. They saw a four hour wait, they wanted to get rid of the four hour wait, which they did, but I think it actually cost us more in the end," he said.
Friedland has made recovering those costs his top priority. New enforcement efforts began earlier this year with a three month traffic amnesty. A record number of drivers avoided penalties by voluntarily paying up. Then in March, the courts reactivated the traffic warrants, ending the short-term suspension that spanned more than two years.
"Most people, they know they owe it. It's just there's been no threat behind paying the fines," said Friedland.
Sgt. Wyant considers himself a friendly reminder with an added incentive to speed payment.
"They know that basically they need to come up with the money, one way or the other, or they're going to jail," he said.
If you have an outstanding warrant, even if it's really old, expect a knock on your door. And be aware that all traffic warrants are now active. So if you get pulled over you can go to jail.
So far the courts have collected roughly 10-percent of that $140 million figure, with an estimated 39,000 cases scheduled for hearings.
And they have fixed the computer issues that lead to the warrant suspension, at least temporarily. The justice court system is one of the most cutting-edge in the country, so part of the problem has been the rest of the state has not yet implemented the new technology.
