“We're talking about a low level, minor traffic offense like speeding, having your tail light out. “Of all the discussions that we've had about criminal justice reform, it seems we’ve ignored the most obvious candidate for reclassification, in terms of bill passage,” said John Jones of the Clark County district attorney’s office.
This time around, however, prosecutors who were previously opposed have added their support, saying they’d prefer to devote their resources to prosecuting serious crimes rather than traffic cases. While Nevada is one of just 13 states to categorize a traffic ticket as a criminal issue, efforts to downgrade it have failed in sessions dating back to at least 2013 and in spite of an interim study on the topic. Many times, this provides a tragic introduction to the criminal justice system.”Ībout 270,000 traffic warrants were pending in the Las Vegas Justice Court alone at the start of the pandemic, when that court announced it would temporarily not be enforcing those warrants because of the health crisis. “Courts, in an effort to enforce the offense, may issue criminal warrants for these people. “It is a reality many Nevadans face - a simple $400 traffic ticket can have a serious adverse effect on a person's life,” said Alex Wong, a youth legislator who helped present the bill. AB116 - a bill that Assemblywoman Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas) presented Thursday in the Assembly Judiciary Committee - would make them civil infractions and not punishable by jail time that can lead to job losses and other ills. Minor traffic offenses are considered criminal misdemeanors that - if unpaid - escalate to warrants that can lead to arrest and are punishable by up to six months in jail. For at least the fifth session in a row, Nevada lawmakers are looking to decriminalize traffic tickets - an action proponents say would move the state away from the vestiges of a Victorian-era debtor’s prison but that local governments continue to oppose because of how it might affect their budgets.
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