Leave it to the Parents: Have a parent indicate on a car registration that it may be driven by a probationary driver, and such information would come up during a routine license plate check. This eliminates the red sticker, but still allows officers to know if the driver is 16-17 if, and only if, they are doing a routine check. This solution will make it so young drivers cannot be directly targeted, as no decals would be displayed on the license plates. The only way someone would be able to target the driver is if they get a hold of the registration information.This solution eliminates the cost of red stickers and the threat of predators as now only police officers, the DMV, and insurance companies will know that there is a young driver operating the vehicle. Supporters:
Police officers, as they will still be able to have an indication that a young person is driving:
Senator Beck would support this solution because she said, “In an age when overhead EZ-Pass sensors can charge drivers for tolls without their cars slowing down, or police can get a driver's history from license plates, there's no reason to use decals visible to any civilian. The state would be better off using a technology detectable by police, but invisible to everyone else” (Hochman). A method of electronically identifying young drivers to police officers alone, would be much safer than the current decals that alert everyone of young drivers.
Unfortunately, this makes it easy for cops to still be able target younger drivers, resulting in more tickets for them since they are still labeled with the title of being a probationary driver (McArdie 1).
Opponents:
Donna Weeks- Kyleigh’s mother who fought for 3 years to get the law implemented (Phalon).
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission- lose $4 per decal
Since they will be losing money, we could increase the price of licenses/IDs by a few dollars to make up for the price increase. Since it is necessary to have an ID, people will have to pay regardless of the price. This is a beneficial solution to making up for the opposing view (Phalon).
This solution would be implemented by making it mandatory that parents state or sign that their car will be driven by a probationary driver when they register their car. Also, if the driver were to get pulled over this information would be found easily that the driver is either a full driver or probationary driver. The DMVs of New Jersey will enforce this change and so they will have to work with insurance companies that provide registration for the cars to make note of probationary drivers at the age of 17.