By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- Arizona lawmakers are moving to get police out of the business of being repossession workers for auto dealers and title loan companies.
Legislation given preliminary approval Wednesday by the Senate would repeal laws that make it a crime to fail to return a motor vehicle after having skipped payments.
It still would be illegal. But HB 2484 would make it a civil matter, no different than failing to make payments on that new TV or washing machine.
Bobbi Sparrow, executive director of the Arizona Automobile Dealers Association, said those are invalid comparisons. She said that motor vehicles are different because they can be driven off and hidden.
But Justin Thornton, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said it's not that simple.
He said that the current law allows dealers and lenders to file reports of stolen vehicles. And that, Thornton said, goes into the same statewide and national database which police use when inputting a license plate into an inquiry.
And what that means, he said, is a "felony stop.''
Thornton told the story of patrolling in the City of Maricopa, running license plates and looking for stolen vehicles as well as possible drugs. One of the plates he ran showed the vehicle was stolen.
"I made a felony stop which is a traffic stop where we stay back by our cars, we pull our weapons, and we start giving them commands to get out of the vehicle,'' he told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.
With the help of other officers, he pulled a father, a mother and three kids out of the vehicle "that really didn't know why they were being pulled out at gunpoint,'' Thornton said.
"That's not something I'm proud of in my career,'' he said. "I don't think that family should have gone through that for a civil issue.''
And then, Thornton said, is the fact that felony stops can lead to danger for both the officers and the people being pulled over from something "going bad on one of these traffic stops.''
The officer assumes that it's stolen when, in fact, it's just a security interest (in the) vehicle,'' he said.
Thornton wasn't alone in asking lawmakers to repeal the law making failure to make payments or return a vehicle a criminal felony.
"It criminalizes a civil issue,'' said Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg.
"It endangers our officers,'' he said. "And I believe it is a danger to the public as well.''
Sparrow argued that this isn't just about a missed payment.
She said the law does not kick in until there have been no payments for at least three months. And even after that, Sparrow said, the lender needs to send a certified letter to the borrower.
But Joe Clure, executive director of the Arizona Police Association, said that's still no reason to get the police involved in what amounts to a breach of a civil contract.
"I understand why they want to keep it,'' he told lawmakers.
"What business wouldn't want to have the police acting as their personal collection agency and have a nationwide repo company at taxpayer expenses?'' Clure continued. "Who wouldn't want that luxury?''
He said nothing stops auto dealers, title loan companies and others from going out and retrieving the vehicle.
"They can hire repo men,'' Clure said.
"They can put a GPS on it,'' he said. "Police have no business doing this.''
And there's something else.
He cited a case where someone bought a vehicle for $14,700 and made payments of $1,225 a month for eight months, totaling $9,800.
"He owns more of the car than the (lending) company does at that point,'' Clure said. But it was still reported as a "stolen'' vehicle.
Clure also said his experience is that the lenders don't follow through and prosecute even though they have reported a crime.
"Once they get the car back, they're done,'' he said, with dealers not wanting to waste the time going to court trying to get someone convicted.
Clure also said that title lenders in particular may not want courts looking into the loans they make because if a court finds the terms "unconscionable'' the contract is void. And he argued that a loan with an effective annual interest rate of 198% might fit that definition.
Dave Warkentin, director of the Arizona Independent Automobile Dealers Association, warned lawmakers that taking away the tool of being able to use police to recover what his association calls stolen vehicles may have repercussions.
He said many of the people who get these loans have low credit ratings.
"They have a history of not paying their bills,'' Warkentin said. "But they still need transportation to transport their families and to get to work.''
He said if the legal remedy they now have disappears it will make all lenders make different deals, like increasing the down payment for everyone or charging higher interest rates for everyone below a certain credit rating.
"Is that better for the low-credit consumer?'' Warkentin asked. "No, it's not.''
And he had his own take about the family that Thornton said he pulled over.
"They were getting pulled over because they defrauded a secured creditor and hid the vehicle for four months from getting repossessed,'' he said.
"They knew this was not their vehicle,'' Warkentin said. "They didn't have a right to that vehicle. They were driving it for free. And they were hiding it from the secured creditor.''
And that, he said, constitutes theft.
All this could soon be moot.
Car and Driver reports that Ford has filed a patent for technology that could aid in repossession of vehicles.
According to the report, it would allow for a dealer or lender to start remotely disabling various vehicle functions like the power windows. And ultimately it could allow autonomous vehicles to drive themselves away and back to the dealership.
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