Driver's License Revocations, Restorations, and Limited Driving Privileges in North Carolina

Driver's License Revocations, Restorations, and Limited Driving Privileges in North Carolina
Author: Shea Riggsbee Denning
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2024-09-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781642380989

There are more than 8 million licensed drivers in North Carolina, and there are more than 1 million people whose licenses have been revoked by the DMV. A small number of those people (around 6,000) have been issued a limited driving privilege by the courts that authorizes driving during the period of revocation, subject to certain limitations. Someone whose license has been revoked may have the license reinstated at the end of the revocation period, but in certain circumstances, restrictions are placed on the reinstated license. More than 100,000 drivers licensed by NC DMV have alcohol restrictions on their licenses, and more than 30,000 are permitted to drive only a vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device. This booklet lists the triggering events and convictions that may result in the revocation of a driver's license. For each event, it also covers how long the license can be revoked, whether a limited driving privilege may issue, the limitations of any such privilege, and the mandatory conditions that apply when the license is restored.

Driven to Failure

Driven to Failure
Author: William Crozier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 51
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

The interest of a person in a driver's license is “substantial,” and the suspension of a license by the State can result in “inconvenience and economic hardship suffered,” as the U.S. Supreme Court has observed, including because a license may “essential in the pursuit of a livelihood.” However, forty-four U.S. states currently require indefinite suspension of driver's licenses for non-driving-related reasons, such as failure to appear in court or pay fines for traffic infractions. There are no systematic, peer-reviewed analyses of individual-level and county-level data regarding such suspensions. This study describes the North Carolina population of suspended drivers and assesses how driver's license suspension statutes operate relative to geography, race, and poverty. We analyze four decades of active suspension data in North Carolina, and find over 1,225,000 active suspensions for failures to appear for or pay traffic fines (amounting to one in seven adult drivers in the state). Second, we compare these data to: county population data; county-level police traffic stop data, collected as required by statute in North Carolina; and county-level data on volume and composition of traffic court dockets. We do not find that either driver's license suspensions are associated with volume of traffic stops or traffic court docket size. In contrast, we find that Blacks and Latinx are overrepresented relative to the population. Linear mixed-level modeling regression analyses demonstrate that the population of whites below poverty, and blacks above poverty, are most strongly associated with more suspensions. Finally, we explore implications of these results for efforts to reconsider the imposition of driver's license suspensions for non-driving-related reasons. These patterns raise constitutional concerns and practical challenges for policy efforts to undo such large-scale suspension of driving privileges.