Not ready

The law is 98% common sense and 2% whimsy. I could be wrong about my numbers; you be the judge.

The Georgia Legislature has this year enabled you to skip carrying around your plastic Georgia driver’s license, and instead, you can opt to carry around a digital driver’s license. All citations are to OCGA Sec. 40-5-29 (just so that I sound like a lawyer).

The digital license is not a picture of your license, but a “certificate” that you get by first downloading a digital certificate authorization on your cell phone, then sending a request to the Department of Driver’s Services, where they deliver to you, eventually, a digital driver’s license. Our own Rep. Shaw Blackmon sponsored this law, so call him with your technical certificate problems. I’m joking, don’t call Shaw. He’ll just forward the calls to me at midnight. But you get the point. It’s not just a picture of your license. Capisce?

One little hiccup that the recent news stories failed to mention. No police department is ready for this law! In fact, the po-po has two years to prepare for it. Unlike when a traffic law changes, such as window tint regulations, you have to be ready immediately, right? With this digital license law, the police get two years to comply. So, the announcement of the new law was essentially a premature… um… release, if you will.

Once the cops are ready to accept digital licenses, you will simply hand over, upon request, your $1,600 phone instead of the cheap plastic license. Relax, the new law states that the police can’t search your phone simply because you handed it to them. “Par. (2) Any person utilizing a wireless telecommunications device to display his or her license in electronic format … shall not be considered to have consented to a search of such device by a law enforcement officer.” 

If you’ve got some nekkid pictures of your wife, girlfriend, or mistress on your phone, you might want to hold on to it. I’ve never met an officer who didn’t want to go back to his car with my plastic license, will phones be any different? Let’s say he’s back there for 10 minutes. What are you going to do about it? If he comes back with a big grin, what are you going to do about it? The law says: “No person shall be compelled to release his or her wireless telecommunications device to a law enforcement officer pursuant to this Code section.” But it was your brilliant idea to go the digital route, and you just voluntarily handed him your phone, so it wasn’t compelled, was it?

You know what? I think I’ll just keep my plastic driver’s license on me. And failing that, I’ll tell the officer that I left it at home. The maximum court fine for not having my license on me is $10, and most prosecutors will dismiss the ticket if you bring your valid license to court. That little piece of plastic seems like a good idea, not that I have nekkid pictures on my phone.

Kelly Burke was born in Knoxville, where he spent his younger years, followed by high school years in Atlanta, where he graduated from Georgia Tech. He then graduated from Mercer Law School. He has been in private practice, a magistrate judge, and an elected district attorney. He writes about the law, politics, music and Ireland. He and his wife enjoy gardening, playing with their Lagotto Ramanolo named George Harrison, and spending time with their grandchildren.