Public Safety, Department of; Motor Carrier Compliance Division to Commercial Vehicle Enforcement; change name

Georgia truck enforcement gets new powers

Georgia renames its Motor Carrier Compliance Division as Commercial Vehicle Enforcement, with statewide jurisdiction. A new Regulatory Compliance Section regulates motor carriers and limousine carriers. Members assigned to enforcement must be designated, trained, sworn, and certified as law enforcement officers, except for weight inspectors. Officers can use drug-detection dogs while carrying out their authorized duties. When a dog signals probable cause that contraband is present, officers have full police authority to enforce Georgia’s controlled-substance and dangerous-drug laws. The department must immediately notify local law enforcement and the local district attorney when a seizure occurs. Weight inspectors work only at fixed scale facilities. The commissioner sets their number within available funding and can organize them into ranks. They can be authorized to enforce noncriminal weight, registration, size, and load rules and assess civil penalties. They can detain commercial vehicles with critical safety defects, criminal-law violations, or violations of out-of-service orders reported in the federal safety database. Detention allows them to contact a certified division officer or Georgia State Patrol officer. A certified officer must respond and handle further inspection, investigation, arrests, or charges. A certified police supervisor must be on duty whenever a weight inspector works. Department vehicles operated by state troopers or division law enforcement officers must have distinctive license plates, issued free without county decals.