Driving Without License: Somewhat Illegal in Florida

by Jordan Yerman | March 19, 2008 at 06:59 am

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The message that Florida's Highway Patrol is sending and what we're receiving are two very different things. They're talking crackdown, we're hearing "if you're caught driving without a license several times, we might arrest you".

Miami-Dade police and the Florida Highway Patrol are cracking down anew on the county's quarter-million people driving with invalid licenses.

Under the working plan, police will more closely look at the status of the license of every driver they stop at checkpoints for driving under the influence. If they find a scofflaw, police will take that person to jail.

''There's not enough space in the jails to arrest every illegal driver,'' said Lt. Pat Santangelo, an FHP spokesman. ``Plus, when you make an arrest, you're taking a police officer off the road for a couple of hours.

``But during these DUI checkpoints, we have more manpower and bigger vans, so we're in a better position to make arrests.''

Santangelo knows there is discontent among some South Floridians over the staggering number of drivers ignoring their suspensions.