New Laws In Cali??

[RedY2KCivic]

Has anyone heard about this new 'police force' that cops are getting trained for in Cali? I got pulled over AGAIN today, and got 4 citations on one freaking ticket I don't want to write that big ass thing over again, but if you want to read my whole ordeal, you can click
here.
So anyways, like I said in that thread, there are going to be new fleets of cops that are specifically trained for going after "street racers" aka any modded vehicle on the road. I mean, he went ALL OVER my car. He said that they're going to start doing walk downs of cars. He said that they're looking for things like altezzas, exhausts, lowering, anything to give away the fact that you mod your car, and they're going to pull you over, make you pop the hood and do a walkthrough of your car and cite you for everything you have that's illegal on it. I have to go to the "State Automobile Referee" to get my intake tested. What is that? I just know that I have to pay a fee to have someone tell me that something is going to be illegal. The cop's words to me were, "any intake that takes in more air than what the 2000 Civic's engine is designed to take in will be illegal". Isn't the point to bring in more airflow? So.....see what I'm getting at?
I'm just so pissed off from all of this, I've never had this problem before, but I was wondering if anyone else has heard anything about these "new cops" that are going to be here in Cali?

[emadboy200]

is this in all of california? That is going to suck big time.

[RedY2KCivic]

Originally posted by emadboy200
is this in all of california? That is going to suck big time.

I don't know, this is the first and only I've heard of it, from what the cop was telling me about today. That's why I asked if anyone else knew.

This REALLY sucks bigtime.

[emadboy200]

Keep an ear open for more info, i will do the same down here in southern cali.

[Kaneto]

I'm going to wait till I see something a little more official. Otherwise, I'm saying the cop was full of shit.

If your stuff is CARB approved, you shouldn't ever have to worry. That's the only thing they can get you on.

Read the laws, find out what's legal and what's not. There really isn't a whole lot that's illegal. In general altezzas, lowering, etc. isn't illegal.

If they try to start making things like CARB-legal intakes, altezzas, lowering springs, etc. illegal just on the basis that they're car modifications, they're just making a world of trouble for themselves... especially in sue-happy southern california. It will eventually wind up in a freedom of speech, freedom of expression lawsuit.

Intakes, lights, lowering, doesn't create an actual safety hazard in and of itself. Yes, people who mod their cars out tend to drive more recklessly than people who don't... but you can't ban the mods themselves, because if you do you are, in essence, stereotyping.

There are special cop "task forces" that target street racing. They go to races and find out who's there and what they're driving, and they get them that way. They did that a couple months ago here in San Diego. That's all they can do, though.

[RedY2KCivic]

Originally posted by Kaneto
I'm going to wait till I see something a little more official. Otherwise, I'm saying the cop was full of shit.
Read the laws, find out what's legal and what's not. There really isn't a whole lot that's illegal. In general altezzas, lowering, etc. isn't illegal.
Intakes, lights, lowering, doesn't create an actual safety hazard in and of itself. Yes, people who mod their cars out tend to drive more recklessly than people who don't... but you can't ban the mods themselves, because if you do you are, in essence, stereotyping.
There are special cop "task forces" that target street racing. They go to races and find out who's there and what they're driving, and they get them that way. They did that a couple months ago here in San Diego. That's all they can do, though.

See, the cop kept on accusing me that my lights were illegal. My STOCK '00 red/white lights, he didn't believe that they came that way. He straight out told me altezzas are illegal-even though some cars have them stock? But he told me that there can't be any white lights in the rear except for the reverse lights and the lights that shine on the lisence plate. It's a "safety hazard".
I know that there's these undercover cops that go out to the races, but what he was talking about was just cops that go around during the day, pulling over 'street racer' cars as he called them. He said that they're getting special training to go over imports specifically and look through the engine on site and determine what was and was not legal.
I mean, I completely agree with you, and I'm really gonna try to research this more in depth.

Oh, he also told me that if I get pulled over for my white light bulbs in my rear turning lights again, that my car will be towed on the spot, because he had "advised me on the violation" (he wrote 'advised on white bulb violation' on the ticket as well). Can they really do that? He told me to go straight home and change them, and I told him that I was on my lunch break and I had to go back to work, and he was like, "well that's a chance you can take, but if you get stopped for them, your call will be towed on site"
Is that really true?

[THE4TH]

yo guys ill keep an eye out and make some phone calls... see what's up ...
as far as your taillights.. the cop was full of shit as we all know but...

But he told me that there can't be any white lights in the rear except for the reverse lights and the lights that shine on the lisence plate. It's a "safety hazard".

he is right on one point... white lights are illegal on the back of the vehicle..cept for reverse lights and plate lights.. but the civic tails are white covers, not white lights... it's only illegal if you shine white light while moving... i used to have clears on my gsr and i put hyper whites in the corner tails and i used to get pulled all the time for it.. and i talked to the guy for like an hour about and got what's cool and what isn't..
if there are no lights on at all the tails can be anythin they want as long as they don't emit white light, and the brake lights are red..
when ya turn the lights on as long as the runnin lights are red, and your blinker blinks red or orange or those weird colors... fine.. but you can't have white blinkers.. even tho i have them on my si but whatever.. ticket me .. but bottom line if you are moving forward you cannot have any color other than red, orange, or yellowish from the back .. other than the plate lights... as stupid as it is..

[RedY2KCivic]

hehe
I was thinking about it, and if I would have just changed lanes w/o using my blinker, he wouldn't have caught me.
I wonder why he didn't get me for my front white blinkers though?

[SilverY2KCivic]

Lindy, that cop was full of it, if he's specially trained, then he would KNOW that 6½ gen Civics come with red/clear tails. If he's that ignorant, fight your citation. There are specific laws governing lowering and all that, sounds like he's trying to pull them out of his butt. Your center of your headlights can't be lower than "22 from the ground, that all the laws on lowering say.

[THE4TH]

yeah take him to court and sue his azz...
get some big bux out of him and then buys us all toys...

[RedY2KCivic]

Originally posted by SilverY2KCivic
Lindy, that cop was full of it, if he's specially trained, then he would KNOW that 6½ gen Civics come with red/clear tails. If he's that ignorant, fight your citation. There are specific laws governing lowering and all that, sounds like he's trying to pull them out of his butt. Your center of your headlights can't be lower than "22 from the ground, that all the laws on lowering say.

You think I should fight it? But fight what about it? I can't fight the fact that I had white bulbs back there because I did. Does anyone know what the actual width of a banner can be to be legal? Because someone told me 6 inches, but if that's it, then my banner is still legal.
And I've been having people tell me that a cop isn't allowed to ask you to open your hood so he can see what you have. See that's what I thought, but he was getting pissed off at my resistance to open it, so I thought he was legit.
So should I just put my stock intake back on when I go get it tested?

I just don't know what my argument would be exactly to fight it.

[THE4TH]

they are all a bunch of crap i don't understand why they don't just stop the murders or something, who cares how much air my engine gets... as long as i pass the smog junk then who cares....

[hybridDC2]

we have "dragnet" here in SD...its a new $400,000 program created to bust street racers and spectators. remember that one movie? well life seems to have imitated art here. undercover cops posing as street racers are videotaping...what happened to my friend is he got a letter like some 3 weeks after he raced along with several still photos of his car, license plate, and even a mug shot of him in it. we're the guinea pig for this program and because of it's success, police departments from all over the u.s. are working hand in hand with SDPD to establish their own programs. yeah that's right, LA, SJ, SAC, yall are next
:smoker2:


if you want info on cali laws, go to sdstreetracing.com and check out the Dragnet forum on the import board. they have cops answering Q's about the legalities of what you can do to your car.

[THE4TH]

the hell with them.. they have to catch me first...

[Jay!]

Here is a searchable database of ALL CA laws:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

Vehicle code is particularly interesting.

Lindy, would you please post the code numbers that cop wrote you up for?