With less money from the state and bounced-check funds drying up, Oklahoma district attorneys are turning to issuing tickets and putting people on probation through their offices – activities typically left to police, counties and the Department of Corrections.
Their newest effort that yields revenue is to crack down on uninsured drivers using a system that scans the license plates of hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans on roadways every year.
In March, the District Attorneys Council, which coordinates state funding for Oklahoma’s 27 district attorneys, recommended a vendor to provide automated license plate scanners. The vendor’s name is being withheld until the contract is finalized.
The scanning devices, which will connect to a database of insured drivers, could start appearing on roadways by the end of the year. Uninsured motorists will get citations in the mail and, if they don’t successfully appeal, pay fines to district attorneys. If they obtain insurance, they can prevent the charges from going on their permanent record. No police or state troopers will be involved in the process.
District attorneys say the purpose of the program is to reduce the large number of uninsured drivers in the state – a problem that pushes up insurance rates and medical costs and contributes to hit-and-run accidents.
But the financial incentive for district attorney’s offices is also strong.
As state funding for their budgets has declined, district attorneys have looked to alternative ways to generate revenue for prosecuting criminals and providing other services.
One rapidly growing funding source is district attorney supervision, a form of probation for misdemeanors and some felonies. Offenders pay a $40 monthly fee to DAs’ offices, and since fiscal year 2006 the total amount collected has quintupled, to more than $14 million, according to District Attorneys Council figures. The fees accounted for roughly 18 percent of district attorney funding in 2016.
That year, 55,443 people convicted of both felonies and misdemeanors were on DA probation statewide, DA Council figures show. The number of felony offenders on probation exceeded that on Department of Corrections probation.
Advocates of criminal justice reform say the system’s growing reliance on self-funding creates conflicts of interest and could drive up incarceration rates. District attorneys determine whether to prosecute crimes, yet increasingly they are acting as enforcers, prosecutors and offender supervisors.
Funding Dilemma
The passage of State Questions 780 and 781 in November exacerbated district attorney’s funding concerns.
The initiatives reclassified simple drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor and redirected expected savings from reduced incarceration toward substance abuse treatment. Prosecutors and some lawmakers pushed back, questioning whether voters fully understood the changes.
Several bills were introduced this session to reverse some of the changes. House Bill 1482 sought to allow prosecutors to file felony charges against individuals who are in possession of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, with some exceptions. That bill did not advance past the House.
Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on a range of public-policy issues facing the state. For more Oklahoma Watch content, go towww.oklahomawatch.org.
