Solution isn’t simple; ‘I don’t know anybody that can pay $4,000 worth of tickets’
Two state lawmakers with law enforcement careers say that while administrative action to close up one loophole exploited by unlicensed drivers is a step in the right direction, other offenders can still continue driving with a suspended license.
A solution is proving difficult.
“If you don’t have a consequence, you’re not going to get compliance,” said one of the two, state Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine). “That’s what we’re after, we want compliance.”
Wisconsin drivers can see their licenses suspended for repeated traffic violations — earning 12 “demerit points” in a year will do it — or for failing to pay fines. While state law prohibits drivers from driving with a suspended license — “operating after suspension,” it’s termed — it’s not a crime unless alcohol is involved. Offenders are instead ticketed.
It’s also illegal to drive without a valid license — that is, “operating without a license.” The first offense for that is a ticket, but subsequent offenses are misdemeanors, opening the door to jail time or fines.
A flaw in how these OWL offenses showed up on police computers led to repeat offenders instead being only ticketed as driving after suspension. The issue received widespread news coverage in Milwaukee in recent years. That led state officials to change the way such offenders appear in a police database. Milwaukee, beset with a reckless driving problem, changed its procedures.
But that change doesn’t affect drivers who, having a license but a suspended one, simply take the ticket and continue driving, racking up fines.
Sen. Jesse James, (R-Thorp), a former police officer who served as police chief of Altoona, said he personally dealt with drivers who abuse this loophole.
“I know incidents where I’ve personally been involved in that it might be their 10th, 15th, 17th, 21st operating after suspension and we just keep giving them the same ticket amounts of $200.50,” he told Badger Institute.
The cost of these tickets presents a barrier to those who can’t afford to go without driving, said James. These drivers would rather risk further tickets than resolve their debt.
“If you have 20 operating after suspension (tickets), and they’re at $200 apiece, you’re talking about over $4,000, and I don’t know anybody that can pay $4,000 worth of tickets,” he said.
He said the state should look for ways to make such drivers appear in court so they can make arrangements.
“I think if these people would actually go to court and have conversations with a judge, there are opportunities where there could be some potential dismissal, to give them an opportunity to pay off the fines,” he said.
Until such a step is taken, James said, suspended drivers could pose a risk to other law-abiding drivers.
“Most of the time these people are driving without insurance and that causes problems to our people who do get insurance and they get in a crash,” he said. “Then our citizens in Wisconsin are paying for that and they’re the ones who get screwed over.”
“It’s not a right, it’s a privilege to drive in our state, and they just don’t care and that’s part of the problem that exists,” he added. “Do we need to be more stern on them? I don’t know if that’s the right answer.”
Indeed, critics argue that suspending licenses is an ineffective means of collecting unpaid fines. The conservative American Legislative Exchange Council recommends that suspensions only apply in instances of dangerous driving and should not be used to collect unpaid fines for other offenses.
A 2024 study by the University of Wisconsin La Follette School of Public Affairs found the state issued 141,044 suspensions to drivers who failed to pay tickets and fines in 2022, accounting for roughly half of all suspensions. Researchers wrote that Wisconsin could save about $200 million in administrative costs if it used the state’s pre-existing debt collection measures rather than suspending licenses.
James was a co-sponsor on a 2023 bill authored by Wanggaard, a former Racine officer who also taught policing at a technical college, to heighten the consequences for those driving with a suspended license. The bill would have made driving on a suspended or revoked license a misdemeanor, along with increasing other penalties for bad-license offenses.
While it earned bipartisan support, including from the City of Milwaukee and Mayor Cavalier Johnson, the measure died after it was passed along to the House.
Wanggaard blamed the lack of criminal penalties for suspended driving in part on pushback from Gov. Tony Evers and other members of the Legislature who felt criminalizing the act would be too harsh.
While driving after suspension used to be a misdemeanor, a softening signed into law in 1997 by Gov. Tommy Thompson removed that penalty at the urging of a judicial task force.
“There was a liberal side of things that didn’t want people to go to jail for driver violations,” Wanggaard said.
But he believes repeat offenders will never willingly attend a court date no matter how forgiving the judge is without the possibility of an arrest.
“If you don’t have consequence and you don’t have compliance, then it’s not a law. Then it’s just a suggestion,” he said.
He argued the solution lies not in the courtroom but in policing.
“If the license is suspended, I don’t think they should get any leniency,” Wanggaard said. “When somebody is driving a vehicle multiple times knowingly that they don’t have a driver’s license, that they lawfully cannot operate, I’m not giving them any leniency. We’ve already done that.”
Both senators will be retiring from the Legislature after this term. James says he plans to return to law enforcement.
Jackson Walker is a native Wisconsinite and a Michigan-based journalist.
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