Crime & Safety
Former Chief Supports Tougher Penalties for Suspended Drivers
Former Greendale Police Chief Robert Dams supports Milwaukee legislator's effort to make causing injury while driving with a suspended license a felony.
The Wisconsin Radio Network reports that former police chief Robert Dams supports a measure by Democratic Rep. Peggy Krusick that would make it a felony to cause great bodily injury to someone in a crash when the driver did not have a valid license.
Dams' son, Nicholas Dams, was killed in 2005 by an unlicensed driver and the driver was issued traffic citations.
“People just don’t want to take responsibility, I believe, for their actions, because there’s no penalty in the law,” WRN reported Dams said. “Legislators have decriminalized all operating after revocation or suspension, unless it’s alcohol related.”
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According to WRN, Krusick has proposed legislation that would make it a felony to cause great bodily injury to someone if the driver has a suspended or revoked license.
"You're knowingly breaking the law by operating a vehicle and you kill somebody, it should be a homicide," Dams said in a December interview with Patch. "It's vehicular homicide. It's not an accident because you shouldn't have been driving."
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