Driving DC to Opportunity: Wealth Should Not Determine Who Gets to Keep Their Driver’s License

DC’s Clean Hands Law restricts driver’s license privileges for court debt above $100. This report shows how this law punishes poverty, exacerbates inequalities, negatively impacts employment opportunities, and contributes to other issues throughout the jurisdiction. The authors argue that the Clean Hands Law law disproportionately impacts poor and Black DC residents, but does not encourage payment nor improve public safety. The text ends with a call to action for the Mayor of DC and the DC Council to enact legislative reforms.  

You can read the full text of the report here. 

Key findings

• D.C.’s Clean Hands Law prevents drivers from obtaining and renewing a license for more than $100 of debt owed to the jurisdiction.  
• Black residents account for 43 percent of DC’s population, but they receive 65 percent of tickets. 
• Black DC residents are 19 times more likely than White residents to get arrested for driving without a valid license. 
• Black men make up less than a fifth of DC’s adult population, but they account for 70 percent of people arrested for driving without a valid license. 
• Failure to pay a traffic or parking ticket within 30 days results in the fine being doubled and loss of the ability to renew a driver’s license. Failure to pay within 90 days results in the debt being sent to collections and an additional 20 percent surcharge on the debt. 
• Annually, 932 hours or 38.8 days of DC police time is spent driving without a valid license. 
• Besides Illinois and Texas, DC is the only other state-level jurisdiction in the U.S. that denies driver’s licenses to people who owe debt to the government. 
• There is no evidence to support the belief that denying driver’s licenses to people who cannot afford their debt encourages payment.

Recommendations

The authors offer two alternative legislative options: 

• End the withholding of driver’s licenses from all DC residents regardless of their ability to pay unpaid debts, or
• End the withholding of driver’s licenses from DC residents who lack the ability to pay based upon confirmed receipt of public benefits.