AB 983: Vehicles: removal and impoundment.

Existing law requires a magistrate to issue a warrant or order authorizing a peace officer to immediately seize and cause the removal of a vehicle if the magistrate is presented with a peace officers affidavit establishing reasonable cause to believe that the vehicle was an instrumentality used in the peace officers presence in violation of specified offenses, including, among others, a person who engages in a motor vehicle speed contest or exhibition of speed on a highway or in an offstreet parking facility, as specified.

Existing law makes it a crime to drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than 100 miles per hour.

This bill would include the above-described crime in the list of offenses for which a peace officer may impound a vehicle pursuant to a warrant or order issued by a magistrate. The bill would authorize a peace officer to alternatively establish reasonable cause to believe that a vehicle was used in violation of the above-described crime outside of the peace officers presence if the peace officer provides evidence recorded by a speed safety system, as specified.