I had an opportunity to speak with a member of law enforcement the other day, as we discussed whether I really needed to be exceeding the posted limit by 14mph. As luck would have it, we both essentially agreed I could: he said he was going to be nice and “give me a warning.” Had I been 15mph over, he said, a citation would have been issued. (Amusingly, the words “give me a warning” were as close as he ever came to one; he gave me nothing written, never mentioned my speed again, and after returning from his cruiser said only “You’re free to go.”)

I mention this in part to praise the fine officers in (whatever the hell Illinois county I was in) but also, of course, to bitch. When the dude asked me for proof of insurance, I discovered mine expired something like 01 Feb 03. Not the insurance, mind you, but the proof. (The cop said it was fine — if we had it into ’03, it was extremely likely to be renewed.)

Yet it got me to thinking: what do we need these documents for, anyway? Why don’t the law enforcement guys, tricked out as they are with shiny little laptops, just pull up the car or driver license and check for an insurance company endorsement? Forget the (easily forged) printed slip — have the carriers do data exchange. After all, if all these privacy violations are inevitable in the networked future, we might as well get some convenience out of it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2003 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Miscellany.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.