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Committee advances bill letting officers mark ‘refused to sign’ on traffic citations
Summary
House Bill 283, advanced by the Senate Public Safety Committee, would allow officers to mark a citation as 'refused to sign' when an encounter raises safety concerns, a change supporters say could reduce negative encounters and free officers for higher-priority calls.
The Georgia Senate Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to advance House Bill 283, a measure supporters say will reduce tense interactions between officers and civilians by allowing officers to record when a person “refuses to sign” a traffic citation.
Representative Yasmin Neal, the bill’s sponsor, told the committee the bill “is designed to do a few things: reduce negative encounters between law enforcement and citizens, save taxpayer dollars, free up law enforcement for more high priority calls, and ensure that everyone goes home at the end of the night.” Neal said the proposal “qualifies into law the ability for law enforcement to write, refuse to sign on a ticket, in instances where the encounter with a citizen who does not agree with the charge or understand the fact that sometimes citizens don't understand that signing a ticket is not an admission of guilt.”
Neal said the bill had bipartisan cosponsors and support from multiple law-enforcement organizations; she told the committee they “should have a letter from the chiefs of police” and listed other supporters including the Georgia Municipal Association and county commissioners’ associations.
After a brief period for questions and no public signup to speak against the measure, Senator Kim Jackson moved to pass the bill; Senator Wilks seconded the motion and the committee recorded the measure as passing unanimously.
Votes at a glance: House Bill 283 — Motion to do pass (mover: Senator Kim Jackson; second: Senator Wilks); outcome: passed unanimously (roll-call not recorded in committee transcript).
