One of the considerations in making this crime a misdemeanor instead of an infraction is that infractions generally must be witnessed by a police officer to be enforced. An appealing aspect of an infraction is that if an infraction is witnessed by an officer, the officers testimony is generally sufficient to prove the infraction, making it easy to charge. On the other hand, if the only evidence is a citizen witness, the misdemeanor is better because the citizen testimony can be used as evidence in court (subject to cross-examination and other rules of evidence.) Misdemeanors also carry the threat of jail time for repeat offenders, so they are a more effective deterrent. (This element is a consideration in the vicious animal ordinance, as a supplement to the state dangerous dog statute, that we are working on in response to citizen testimony at a council meeting a few weeks ago. I’ll cover that in a future entry.)
So, please call 911 if you see someone that does not appear likely to have permission entering a vehicle, and tell the dispatcher you may be witnessing an illegal vehicle trespass. (The ordinance is fully approved by council, but will require a few weeks for publishing, so there may be a few weeks delay before the change in the law allows new prosecutions.)
Wow, that sounds great! I didn’t realize it wasn’t a crime to attempt to get into someone else’s car already. Thank you for the info!