Dodge County changes the way they write tickets for operating without license

The Dodge County Sheriff’s office has changed its policy on how it handles drivers who drive without a valid drivers license, to be more aggressive on them. Sheriff Dale Schmidt says In Wisconsin, if you commit a violation of operating without a license, it’s simply an ordinance violation with only a forfeiture assessed. However, 2nd or subsequent offenses within 3 years become a traffic crime with penalties that can include jail time.

Unfortunately, once the first violation is processed through the courts, the driving status is changed from “No Valid License Issued” to “Suspended”. As a result, many law enforcement officers and agencies are issuing subsequent citations for Operating while Suspended, which never escalates to becoming a crime. Because of this, some individuals continue to receive citations, fail to pay those citations, and seldom ever strive to obtain their license to operate legally.

Effective immediately, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office will no longer be issuing citations for operating while suspended in these cases, but will be issuing the operating without license citation and asking the District Attorney’s Office to prosecute the multiple offense crimes in hopes of gaining compliance.

Schmidt gave reference to two recent cases in his county, calling out individuals who are chronic offenders of this very issue. The first person is a 21-year-old rural Beaver Dam man, who has 14 prior operating while suspended violations and numerous incidents of failure to pay forfeiture. Under the new policy, he was arrested by the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office for his 3rd operating without license offense and booked into the jail for the traffic crime.

The second offender is a 20-year-old Columbus man, who has 24 prior operating while suspended violations and numerous incidents of failure to pay forfeiture. He was also issued a citation for his 3rd Operating without license offense and subsequently arrested and jailed