This article provides interesting insight on tickets in Fort Lauderdale stemming from bike registration laws: Fort Lauderdale Cops Are Still Arresting Dozens for Biking While Black
The article discusses that in 2003, the City of Fort Lauderdale passed an ordinance requiring residents to register their bicycles with the city for the charge of 1$ in an effort to reduce bicycle thefts (the fee was later dropped altogether):
“City commissioners said it worked, and bike thefts decreased. Police also found that stopping bikers to check whether their bikes were registered turned out to be an effective way of finding drug dealers and house burglars. It gave cops probable cause to stop people, check their identification, and check for outstanding arrest warrants.”
However, the data seems to suggest that the police may have used the ordinance as a pretext for stopping people in “primarily African-American neighborhoods”:
According to data provided by the [Broward] Public Defender’s Office, between December 2013 and September 2014, the Fort Lauderdale PD issued only 45 tickets for unregistered bikes. Yet 42 of the violators were black — 93 percent of the total. Only one ticket was issued east of Federal Highway.
The full article can be found here: Fort Lauderdale Cops Are Still Arresting Dozens for Biking While Black
Casey Reiter is an associate attorney at Stuart R. Manoff & Associates, P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida, practicing in the areas of Criminal Defense and Family law.
Casey Reiter Appeals, P.A. 