I understand that.
You shoulda got stationed in “the hood” tons of ghetto sleds, almost nothing else. LOADS of warrants. Loads of pedophiles.

Of course, pulling over cars with “no tags at all” (because they failed inspection and couldn’t get a tag, is another way of outing anonymous criminals.

In fact, since inspection is part of the tag renewal process, there is no way to know if a car has failed or not unless I pull it over for expired tags … then the driver could present the paperwork saying that the car had failed and had 30 days to fix the problem and get re-inspected.

Traffic stops are a major way of catching criminals with outstanding warrants but most of the cars I pulled over for expired tags weren’t ghetto sleds but yuppies who simply hadn’t bothered.

Hey SCM, I get what it’s about. The devil is in the details.
Crime reduction is part of efficient government. Doing it wrong can screw up that part and then it won’t matter.
Ask Godwin what it would be like if hey couldn’t stop cars for no inspection, and no plates. We have a history of screwing up the laws so that they only benefit criminals in Memphis. My impetus is well founded.

It’s hard to keep up with the stream of consciousness, but this isn’t about crime. It’s about efficient, customer-focused government.

Midtowner:

Sorry, we took out that sentence, because it wasn’t implying that consolidation was the way to end auto inspections. It was trying to say that city government didn’t need to wait on that vote to do something. Since it was clearly confusing, we deleted it. And as you probably know, we have no problem with deannexation, but its impact would be much stronger with getting rid of two governments doing the job of one.

Memphians do pay an inspection fee … it’s collected when we pay for our tags.

SCM, good article until you got to the consolidation thing. Memphis doesn’t need to consolidate to end the inspections. In fact, inspections are hurting the consolidation effort. Eliminating car inspections would eliminate one of the passionate arguments against consolidation.

Not that I favor consolidation by any means. I think it’ll make things worse rather than better. I favor Memphis de-annexing parts of the city so that it can provide better service to what it has.

Inspections and a passing grade, look at crime-mapper, usually it is one of the first arrests leading to drug, assault, and child endangerment arrests. A key element in spotting people who can’t be bothered to obey ANY laws.

“It was about removing rules for ordinary citizens. As Mr. Goldsmith explained it, regulations like those aimed at auto inspections rarely hit their mark, because violators so often ignore the rules in the first place, whether it’s an auto inspection or a dog permit.”

That is why you keep it for now, if crime abates enough, a TON here, get rid of it. Right now we’re not even close. I guess if you leave the laws in place in an enforceable manner, it might work out.

Of course, there is no fee for inspections here, which is literally, unfathomable. If you have a service, you need to charge for it. If you get rid of it, like Arkansas did, service stations perform it.

Unions in Memphis are a JOKE, they are in business to stay in business and don’t represent their rank and file well AT ALL. They are supposed to be looking out for the welfare of their industry with responsible policies aimed at employee ownership and the death of their union due to lack of need, but, not here.

Teams to serve neighborhoods?
I think that infrastructure is already in place though not in an “city official” capacity. The Mayor would do well to check into, background checks, and get on to that.
Great post.