Fingerprints For Motorists Lack Support

Tue., March 25, 1997

Associated Press

A House bill that would allow Washington motorists to be fingerprinted when they apply for drivers licenses won’t make it past the Senate, two Senate leaders said Monday.

Senate Law and Justice Committee Chairwoman Pam Roach, R-Auburn, and Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, both said House Bill 1243 had no chance of passage.

The bill, which cleared the House 60-37 earlier this month, would require the Department of Licensing to issue “nonstandard” drivers licenses to motorists who don’t want to have their fingerprints on file with the state.

A hearing on the bill by Roach’s committee is scheduled for Thursday, but Roach said she polled committee members last week to see if it would pass.

“From our more liberal Democrats to our more conservative Republican members, the votes weren’t there to send it anyplace,” she said.

“I am personally opposed to the fingerprinting of all citizens,” Roach said. “Now we fingerprint people who are criminals, who are going to be employed as school teachers, who are applying for concealed weapon permits. However, it is totally different when you start fingerprinting everyone who wants to drive an automobile.”

Some Republicans had hoped the bill would have been reviewed by the Senate Transportation Committee, which is open to the idea of voluntary fingerprinting. But Republican leaders sent it to Roach’s committee, knowing it wouldn’t get a welcome response.

“The measure raises more questions than it answers,” McDonald said in a news release. “The idea needs a considerable amount of work before it’s ready for Senate consideration.”

Roach and McDonald also questioned boosting the license fee from $14 to $22, which would raise more money than is estimated to be needed to administer the fingerprinting program.

McDonald said he was concerned that both law enforcement officers and merchants might be leery of people with the nonstandard licenses.

“None of the bill is retrievable this year,” said Roach. Instead she wants to work with law enforcement and the banking community to make drivers licenses harder to counterfeit.

“We also really need to start cracking down on people who are committing crimes (by using fake drivers licenses) and putting them away. They will think twice in trying to duplicate if they realize there will be swift punishment,” she said.

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