How can an innocent person have a criminal record? Shouldn't any trace of the same be expunged when innocence is firmly established? Such an unfortunate reality is just too incongruous to escape comment here.
True Story.
I pull over a guy, a very distinguished looking older gentleman, and his wife. They did a U-turn in a no U-turn intersection. I plan on just issuing them a warning, assuming that the DL and vehicle info comes back as ok.
He comes back with a possible warrant for his arrest, pending verification by issuing agency. Sigh.
OK. At this point I immediately signal for another car on non-emergency backup, and delve a little deeper into the computer warrant info...and I start going "Huuuuuh." The warrant is out of Someother City for failure to appear out of traffic charges. Now, granted...this guy just did pull a minor boneheaded manuever by doing a U-ey in front of a cop at an intersection marked NO U TURNS, but he
really didn't seem the sort to have the laundry list of traffic charges listed on this warrant.
The verification yields an interesting tidbit. The warrant is good, but this guy also has an identity theft warning attached to his DL. So, now...I put two and two together, have another chat with him, and decide that not only is he
probably not the guy who actually got the traffic warrants, I certainly don't think that I have the necessary PC to arrest him on them. He goes off, with his warning and a thank you, and armed with the advice to call the Clerk of Courts in Someother City rightfreakingnow to figure out whats up with "his" warrants.
Here is what most likley happened. Joe Scumbag somehow gets this guy's personal 411. Joe Scumbag then gets pulled over for violating most of the Ohio Revised Code's traffic section. Joe Scumbag says "Sir, I don't have my license, but I can give you my SSN. I have an Ohio license. My name is Bob Innocent, and I live at 1234 Sum St. in Someother City, OH, and my birthday is 9/8/76."
Well, ok. What is that SSN? 123-45-6789? Ok, this will just take a minute.
Our Gendarme returns to his cruiser to verify this information. Well, Lo! and behold. Joe Scumbag has given the SSN of Bob Innocent. Bob Innocent and Joe Scumbag are somewhat physically similar. 5'10"ish, 165 lbs? Well...he mighta put on a few...both are 28 years old...brown hair, green eyes. The car doesn't match up, though...
Sir, whose car are you driving? Oh, it's your buddy, Joe Scumbag's? OK. Well, sign this ticket here...signing means that you promise to show up in court, or pay these charges. Thank you, and drive safely.
So, now...of course Joe Scumbag doesn't go to Bob Innocent's court appearance. Neither does Bob Innocent, of course, be cause he knows nothing about it. So...when no one shows up, guess what? Warrant for arrest, failure to appear.
Bob Innocent is now a wanted man.
This is how an innocent man can end up with a warrant for his arrest. He might not end up with, as you say, a criminal record (I'll let Lawdog explain for sure, but I imagine he was just being less than clear in his terminology), but he certainly will end up with arrest warrants.
So? Whose screw up was this? The cop who issued the tickets in the first place? No, not really. Imagine the keening wail of the civil libertarians if you actually just arrested someone for not having their DL on them, at a traffic stop. Or if we just arrested people out of traffic stops as a matter of routine. Or, if we "hassled" someone over driving a car that was not registered to them.
The answer is, it was nobody's screw up. But, an innocent man very nearly went to jail for one night in my city, got a free ride in a Prisoner Transport to Someother City the next day, and would then stand before a judge and have an opportunity to post bond.
That is
unacceptable to me, and it ought to be to anyone else out here, too. If he had not noted that he had already seen some pretty odd things in the mail (account statements from accounts he didn't have, etc) and contacted some government agency somewhere, he probably would have had that happen.
So, now we're playing civil liberties off against one another. Should the police fingerprint you as a matter of routine if you get stopped in your car? No? Well, should they take you to jail if you forget your DL? No? Should they just stop enforcing traffic laws altogether? No? Should they just accept that they will sometimes give innocent people a ride to jail and be happy with it? No?
I have news for you...one of those questions must logically be a yes. Its up to the American people to decide which one. But pretending that it doesn't have to be one of the above is ignoring the issue. Honoring liberty in one instance creates the opportunity for jamming up a Good Guy in another.
Mike