Special car plates for DUI drivers termed privacy invasion

Kiley Russell

Wednesday, March 31, 1999 | 9:06 a.m.

CARSON CITY - A plan that forces convicted drunken drivers to put zebra-striped license plates on their cars is a humiliating invasion of privacy that won't keep drunks off the road, opponents argue.

But advocates countered Tuesday that the license plates are supposed to be embarrassing and would work as both a warning to other drivers and as a deterrent to people who might otherwise consider driving after too many drinks.

AB487, by Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, would make anyone convicted of a first DUI to have the plates for one year. For a second offense, the plates would stay on cars for three years, and for a third offense, seven years.

"I am opposed to this bill because all it seems to do is humiliate someone who has already been through something that was probably very humiliating to them," said Bryan McCurdy, who said he was representing himself.

"We're simply going towards an area where we're tattooing something on someone's forehead or forearm and marking that person for life," McCurdy told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee.

George Clack, also representing himself, added, "For speeding, there will be a checkered plate or for domestic violence, why don't we give them a red plate? It could go on and on."

But Gibbons said, "People need to be warned that this person is a problem drinker and the plate will be alerting police to vehicles owned by people convicted of DUI."

Joe Gilbert, a senior at the University of Nevada, Reno, said he lost a close friend to a drunken driver and thinks the bill would help keep problem drinkers visible to other drivers.

"If you see that plate, you know what that person stands for, what they've done in the past. It gives you the leeway as to whether you want to drop back a couple of car lengths or exit the freeway or highway altogether," Gilbert said.

Washoe County Sheriff's Capt. Jim Nadeau, representing the Nevada Sheriffs and Chiefs Association, said his organization backs Gibbons' legislation.

"As far as families, I would say this (is) certainly going to give the rest of the family an incentive to deal with the problem drinker in the family," he said. "There is a certain amount of embarrassment associated with the plate. That plate ... would have to be a deterrent to this kind of thing."

The cost to implement the program would run about $25,000 a year, based on last year's 10,000 drunken-driving convictions in Nevada, according to Owen Ritchie of the state Department of Motor Vehicles.