AB 8 from Assemblymember Mike Gatto, D-Glendale, will allow law enforcement to use California’s network of digital signs to inform the public of serious hit-and-run incidents via a “Yellow Alert.”
According to data from Gatto, less than half of hit-and-run suspects nationwide are apprehended, and the figure is less than 20 percent in the Los Angeles area.
Gatto introduced similar Yellow Alert legislation (AB 47) in 2014, but Brown vetoed the bill.
The Yellow Alert joins a growing list of alert sub-types: Amber Alerts for missing children believed to be kidnapped, Blue Alerts for violence perpetrated against law enforcement officers, and Silver Alerts for missing and at-risk elderly persons.
Brown also announced Monday that he signed legislation, AB 643 by Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, D-Sherman Oaks, that would authorize a Silver Alert – for a missing person 65 years of age or older, developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired – to be made by changeable message sign “if a law enforcement agency determines that a vehicle may be involved in the missing person incident and specific vehicle identification data is available for public dissemination.”
We are here at City Hall with @mikegatto & @FinishTheRide to support AB 8, the Yellow Alert Bill, to curb hit & runs. pic.twitter.com/CNAzjE4AdY — LACntyBikeCoalition (@lacbc) September 28, 2015
