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Kim Wills
Member
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Posted: Fri Mar 7th, 2008 03:38 am |
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The police are more than aware that my affluent neighborhood does not work in Berkeley Springs. LOL I did not turn them in, the tags are apparent on most of the cars here.
Those who are complaining about the out of state plates shoyuld turn them in. It would save them from complaining about the issue. Neighbors shoud not worry about retaliation. Everyone knows the law and we all know we should folow the law. I think the letter was a way to settle the outrage of out of state complaints.
Quite honestly, the law does state that these checkpoints must be publicized. Ask the State Police Department. Crazy but true!
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John Mattson
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 04:09 pm |
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Kim,
Thanks for the info, but this is still a bit mind boggling for me. I know the police are overworked and they could spend their days more wisely.
Do you know if there is a "privacy" legality or folks complaining and shouting "violation of privacy"? Cause trust me, I have been and have seen other people pulled over by police across the country for less "probable cause" than out of state tags.
I totally agree that the county has a right to claim taxes on those vehichles, I just don't think it is the county's responsibility to figure out how to "catch" these people without sending a form in the mail they way it was done last summer.
Hypothetical question, do you think if you turned your neighbors in that they might not think it was you, and if they did find out it was you, would you be concerned they might retaliate in some way?
As far as the DWU/DUI checks being posted in advance to protect privacy seems strange to me. The main point of doing the checks is for the safety of every person. It doesn't make logical sense to me that we would "protect" a person's privacy and take a chance on someone getting killed by a drunk driver. I would be willing to bet that if someone's teenage son or daughter was killed by a drunk driver, the parents would sue the county, state, and whomever else they could because safety of our citizens was not a priority.
We just need to figure out a better way of enforcing the registering of vehicles.
On another but similar note, how about this one. ATVs and off-road motorcycles. Do you think residents should be forced to register them like a car, even though they are not allowed to be driven on public roads?
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Kim Wills
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 03:53 pm |
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John,
I have lived here quite a few years. I have seen the outrage when the police did a tag check on those dropping off the children at local schools. The response to these checks was violation of privacy.
Many residents in this town own a business in a neighboring state. They drop their children off in the out of state licensed vehicles and go to work. Morgan County should have the right to claim taxes on these vehicles minus one driven for work. Many of my neighbors own five or six vehicles with only one used by them for work. All have Maryland tags.
Morgan County is a large area. The residents who are complaining about these tags could save alot of police time and tax dollars by just letting the authorities no which streets to check.
As for the DUI/DWI checkpoints it is mandatory that they be posted in newspapers with a alternate route printed to protect your right of privacy.
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John Mattson
Member
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 06:04 pm |
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My last post got me thinking about the letter I received with my personal property tax bill last summer - the one asking residents to tattle on their neighbors whose cars were registered in another state.
I am sort of mixed on this one, because like many other states, West Virginia taxes us each year on our depreciated vehicles - and the same vehicle we paid taxes on when we purchased it. So, I completely understand why people don't register their cares in WV.
However, it is required by most every state across the US that within 30-days of moving to a new state you must obtain the new state's license and register your vehicle. Being a resident of a state and buying a car in a different state is no way to get around it.
Finally, if the current local government is fixed on catching these law breakers, and they want to recoup the lost revenu, they should not be as shady as to ask you to rat out your neighbor. They have access to public records and frankly just about everyone in Morgan County knows everyone else so it is probably pretty obvious who lives here and has out of state tags on their cars.
Just like the random DUI/DWI checks, why not have a similar spot registration check?
It is a funciton of the government to solve this problem, not the residents.
John
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