DPS Commission Hearing on Implementation Readiness for Real IDs
A BeatTheChip Exclusive
AUSTIN -- Texas Department of Public Safety License Administrator Chief Judy Brown briefed the Public Safety Commission Thursday, October 16th on DPS’s application status for $171.2 million in FEMA/DHS grants to implement recent rules and technologies Real ID compliant license standards. Chief Brown discussed the public-private business model including staffing commissioned officers in a new proposed license administrator hierarchy, amid priorities to implement the federal mandate.
Brown indicated there was significant reluctance from State Legislators and resources to move forward with financing the new licenses with State funds. If the FEMA/DHS grants are accepted in the State of Texas, proposed rulemaking would standardize new licenses to for federal purposes such as: applying for social programs, entering federal buildings, and flying on regulated aircraft by the next deadline of 2009 and state the driver’s nationality.
C. Tom Clowe Jr. , DPS Comissioner, asked Chief Brown about her rationale for employing comissioned officers over civillian clerks.
“Civillians will argue with another civllian [clerk]. They will not argue with a uniform,” said Chief Brown during her commentary for incorporating a new job title, “Civillian Manager”.
Other topics covered during the meeting included a response from DPS Chairman Allen Polunsky to those giving public input regarding license inspection checkpoints. Citizens expressed opposition during public input to random license checkpoints and a new rule requiring citizenship documentation in order to attain a drivers license. Immediately following the testimony from members of the 5-11 Campaign, Polunsky said, “There are no plans... to instill public checkpoints at this time.” He added that concerns over the checkpoints were premature.
Later in the meeting, Chairman Polunsky submitted a letter from Texas Senator Juan Hinajosa concerned about the rulemaking for license requirements and license examination checkpoints.
September 8th, 2008 the DPS sought permissions from the Attorney General in the form of an opinion request document to allow license checkpoints in the State of Texas. Checkpoints have been illegal in the state of Texas since 1994.
YOUTUBE FOOTAGE OF DPS MEETING:
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Classic Oppositon to Real ID
Lest we forget, Representative Ron Paul opposes The Real ID Act of 2005.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
What the Police Sate Looks Like
The U.S. military "is not a Swiss Army knife," ready to fight the Taliban one week, respond to a hurricane the next and put down a major political protest the third week, Healy said. - CNN.com
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States military's Northern Command, formed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, is dedicating a combat infantry team to deal with catastrophes in the U.S., including terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
Soldiers preparing for a mission coordinated by Joint Task Force North, the U.S. Northern Command unit.
The 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry, which was first into Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003, started its controversial assignment Wednesday [October 1, 2008].
A DHS Checkpoint in Texas
"Is this voluntary or involuntary?" - An answer to the police.
If it is voluntary : "Am I free to go?"
The answer is always yes.
Friday, October 10, 2008
DPS Authors Identity & Checkpoint Rule Without Public Input
HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM...
McClendon and several other lawmakers want the sunset commission staff to propose a separate agency combining the DPS driver license renewal services and vehicle safety inspections that now are under the Texas Department of Transportation.
Putting those duties under a separate agency would free DPS and TxDOT "to do what they do best," McClendon said.
She expects a new agency that keeps a state trooper's presence at driver license offices under a civilian administration and business model.
Texas requires legal status for IDs, licenses
© 2008 The Associated Press
Oct. 8, 2008, 5:54PM
AUSTIN — People who aren't U.S. citizens must now prove they are living legally in the country before receiving or renewing a Texas driver's license or identification card.Under the new administrative rule, the Department of Public Safety will require immigration documents that prove a person's lawful status.
Texas Becomes Roadblock Battleground
c/o TheNewspaper.com
Oct. 8, 2008, 5:54PM
AUSTIN — People who aren't U.S. citizens must now prove they are living legally in the country before receiving or renewing a Texas driver's license or identification card.Under the new administrative rule, the Department of Public Safety will require immigration documents that prove a person's lawful status.
Texas Becomes Roadblock Battleground
c/o TheNewspaper.com
Interest groups battle over roadblocks ahead of the 2009 Texas legislative session.
Interest groups are pressuring Texas lawmakers to authorize the use of roadblocks ahead of their return for the 2009 legislative session. The practice of setting up barricades on roads to stop and interrogate motorists suspected of no wrongdoing has been unlawful since a 1994 state appeals court decision ruled that a "politically accountable governing body at the state level" must first approve their use. Now Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has scheduled an October 23 deadline for briefs to decide the Texas Public Safety Commission's request to bypass this requirement and approve roadblocks on its own authority.
VIEW AG Abbot's Letter Here : http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2008/tx-roadblock.pdf
MEET - UP With the 5-11 Campaign for a Solution
You have just read shocking proof that our government wants our consent to make a checkpoint society part of our daily lives.
With incremental progress and voluntary consent from willing and/or unknowing citizens, they will have the level of policing required to dominate daily routines and freedom of movement we now take for granted.
The 5-11 Campaign is part of a "rapid response" coalition to give our answer that drivers license checkpoints could be interpreted as excessive force and a misappropriation of police and law enforcement resources.
THE CALL TO ACTION - Please Don't Wait
- We ask you to examine the attached document with full consideration of your response to initiating Texas into a checkpoint society. We ask you to oppose this system without fear of intimidation, retaliation or recognition for being a group or individual who does so.
- We ask you to document your opposition by issuing a letter representing your organization to the Attorney General's office & The Texas Department of Public Safety of your interpretation of the uses of these checkpoints.
- We ask that you activate and organize your grassroots petitioners after defining your position on this issue to demonstrate their opposition by October 23rd to the Attorney General.
- Finally, we ask to be able to add your name with ours as comprehensive opposition to the use of checkpoints throughout the State of Texas we define at our meeting October 11, 2008 here in Austin. Even if you are unable to attend, we are still interested in adding your names and organizations to our coalition.
RAPID RESPONSE COALITION MEETING
Sunday October 12th, 2008 3 PM; Brave New Books, 1904 Guadalupe Austin, TX
If you are interested in circulating a documented petition, we suggest that you take independent action with your groups and to please submit signatures to the Attorney General. We feel adding your name to our coalition is a very effective show of opposition on this issue.
For more information about documenting your public input or efforts to general assistance in organizing, please feel free to contact.
Sheila Dean
310-857-8257
beatthechip@gmail.com
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
REASON: Premature Real ID Obit Celebrates K.Albrecht
THIS ARTICLE IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE HARDWORKING ANTI-REAL ID ACTIVISTS BUSTING THEIR ASSES TRYING TO KEEP FASCISM FROM STEALING THE AMERICAN IDENTITY. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE . IN CASE YOU STILL LIVE IN A STATE WHO HASN'T REJECTED THEIR REAL ID, BeatTheChip IS HERE TO TELL YOU THAT YOUR STATE IS STILL FACING AN UNFUNDED MANDATE. DON'T YOU DARE THINK YOU CAN GO BACK TO SLEEP ABOUT THIS.
Here's to REASON, who didn't use enough of it, and maybe failed to realize that SB60 was just upon them in their Los Angeles backyards and that California is barely out of the woods as a State on this issue.
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:
Texas Seeks Public Opinion on License Checkpoints
Texas Becomes Roadblock Battleground c/o The Newspaper.com
Interest groups battle over roadblocks ahead of the 2009 Texas legislative session.
Interest groups are pressuring Texas lawmakers to authorize the use of roadblocks ahead of their return for the 2009 legislative session. The practice of setting up barricades on roads to stop and interrogate motorists suspected of no wrongdoing has been unlawful since a 1994 state appeals court decision ruled that a "politically accountable governing body at the state level" must first approve their use. Now Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has scheduled an October 23 deadline for briefs to decide the Texas Public Safety Commission's request to bypass this requirement and approve roadblocks on its own authority.
Texas is one of fewer than a dozen states that currently prohibit warrantless searches of motorists. For that reason, the new president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Laura Dean-Mooney, made convincing the Texas legislature of the need for roadblocks a high priority for her organization.
"I have a special place in my heart for Texas," Mooney said upon taking the top job in July. "But so much more must be done. Passing interlocks for all drunk driving offenders and sobriety checkpoints to deter drunk driving would be a great start."
MADD came close to a legislative victory in April 2007 when the state Senate voted unanimously to establish the waterborne equivalent of a roadblock. The proposed "boating safety checkpoints" would have allowed police to pull over and question all recreational boaters on lakes within the state. The legislation would also have given police the discretion to use force to take a boater's blood to determine sobriety. The measure died when the state House declined to act on the bill.
The alcoholic beverage industry feels threatened by the chilling effect such draconian measures would have on sales of beer and wine at restaurants.
"By calling for roadblocks and mandating breathalyzers for first time offenders, regardless of their BAC level, MADD is ignoring the root cause of today's drunk driving problem -- hard core alcohol abusers," American Beverage Institute Managing Director Sarah Longwell said. "Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today's drunk driving problem. That leaves adults who enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner, a beer at a ball game, or a champagne toast at a wedding to be harassed at checkpoints."
The possibility of innocent drivers being arrested at such checkpoints is increased by a state police policy that gives troopers an incentive to accuse motorists of drunk driving. In a June meeting of the Public Safety Commission, a twenty-seven year veteran of the state police testified about drunk driving (DWI) arrest quotas.
"Also, my second item, some of the troopers that have earned vacation and putting in requests for vacation are being told that their vacation request will not be considered unless they are getting a certain amount of DWIs," retired Trooper Coy Lorance testified.
The commission responded by attempting to get around the prohibition on drunk driving roadblocks by referring to them as "license checks." The group put in the request to the attorney general last month after receiving an inconvenient response from the state police chief.
"Mr. Chairman, you had asked at the meeting prior to... prepare a document that would relate the legal responses to conducting driver's license, registration, and insurance checkpoints," Department of Public Safety Director Thomas Davis testified in June. "I think it's the recommendation of general counsel that without the authority being granted by a governance is that we're not able to do that legally."
In a 2005 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that 99.29 percent of drivers stopped at state roadblocks were innocent. The results also showed that it took 53 percent more effort to make an arrest with a roadblock than to use traditional roving patrol techniques. Nonetheless, the court upheld the validity of roadblocks (view ruling).
The request letter sent to the attorney general is available in a 170k PDF file at the source link below.
Source: Request for Attorney General Opinion (Texas Department of Public Safety, 10/6/2008)
Interest groups battle over roadblocks ahead of the 2009 Texas legislative session.
Interest groups are pressuring Texas lawmakers to authorize the use of roadblocks ahead of their return for the 2009 legislative session. The practice of setting up barricades on roads to stop and interrogate motorists suspected of no wrongdoing has been unlawful since a 1994 state appeals court decision ruled that a "politically accountable governing body at the state level" must first approve their use. Now Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has scheduled an October 23 deadline for briefs to decide the Texas Public Safety Commission's request to bypass this requirement and approve roadblocks on its own authority.
Texas is one of fewer than a dozen states that currently prohibit warrantless searches of motorists. For that reason, the new president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Laura Dean-Mooney, made convincing the Texas legislature of the need for roadblocks a high priority for her organization.
"I have a special place in my heart for Texas," Mooney said upon taking the top job in July. "But so much more must be done. Passing interlocks for all drunk driving offenders and sobriety checkpoints to deter drunk driving would be a great start."
MADD came close to a legislative victory in April 2007 when the state Senate voted unanimously to establish the waterborne equivalent of a roadblock. The proposed "boating safety checkpoints" would have allowed police to pull over and question all recreational boaters on lakes within the state. The legislation would also have given police the discretion to use force to take a boater's blood to determine sobriety. The measure died when the state House declined to act on the bill.
The alcoholic beverage industry feels threatened by the chilling effect such draconian measures would have on sales of beer and wine at restaurants.
"By calling for roadblocks and mandating breathalyzers for first time offenders, regardless of their BAC level, MADD is ignoring the root cause of today's drunk driving problem -- hard core alcohol abusers," American Beverage Institute Managing Director Sarah Longwell said. "Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today's drunk driving problem. That leaves adults who enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner, a beer at a ball game, or a champagne toast at a wedding to be harassed at checkpoints."
The possibility of innocent drivers being arrested at such checkpoints is increased by a state police policy that gives troopers an incentive to accuse motorists of drunk driving. In a June meeting of the Public Safety Commission, a twenty-seven year veteran of the state police testified about drunk driving (DWI) arrest quotas.
"Also, my second item, some of the troopers that have earned vacation and putting in requests for vacation are being told that their vacation request will not be considered unless they are getting a certain amount of DWIs," retired Trooper Coy Lorance testified.
The commission responded by attempting to get around the prohibition on drunk driving roadblocks by referring to them as "license checks." The group put in the request to the attorney general last month after receiving an inconvenient response from the state police chief.
"Mr. Chairman, you had asked at the meeting prior to... prepare a document that would relate the legal responses to conducting driver's license, registration, and insurance checkpoints," Department of Public Safety Director Thomas Davis testified in June. "I think it's the recommendation of general counsel that without the authority being granted by a governance is that we're not able to do that legally."
In a 2005 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that 99.29 percent of drivers stopped at state roadblocks were innocent. The results also showed that it took 53 percent more effort to make an arrest with a roadblock than to use traditional roving patrol techniques. Nonetheless, the court upheld the validity of roadblocks (view ruling).
The request letter sent to the attorney general is available in a 170k PDF file at the source link below.
Source: Request for Attorney General Opinion (Texas Department of Public Safety, 10/6/2008)
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