Special License Plates Give California Officials A Free Ride

Orange County Register reporter, Jennifer Muir, found that scores of California officials and their families have special license plates that often shield them from traffic tickets and toll road violations. The confidential license plate program was initially designed in 1978 to keep law enforcement officials safe. But the program has ballooned, and now hundreds of thousands of public officials and their families have enrolled. As a result, scores of traffic abuses, from parking citations to toll road abuses to red light violations, have been dismissed or ignored once law enforcement and DMV employees got wind of the special plates. Needless to say, this translates into millions of uncollected dollars for state, county, and city coffers. This past Monday, state lawmakers on the Assembly Transportation Committee voted to expand the program further to include veterinarians, firefighters, and code enforcement officers. Larry Mantle talks with Muir about her story, to State Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, and to Assemblyman Sandre Swanson.