When lawmen decide that enforcing a law is more hassle than its worth, that’s a poorly written law.
Such seems to be the case with Mississippi’s ban on texting while driving.
The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson reported this weekend that Highway Patrol officials say the state’s ban on texting behind the wheel is too complicated and the punishment too minor for offenders. As a result, when state troopers catch someone guilty of the dangerous practice, they often ticket them for careless driving instead.
The problem is that texting while driving in Mississippi is considered a civil offense, not a criminal one. To enforce the law, the citing officer has to go to justice court and file an affidavit against the offender. Apparently, most troopers have decided it’s not worth the trouble. They have written just 148 tickets during the law’s first 1½ years in existence.
The law needs to be fixed. When it was passed in 2015, proponents knew the law wasn’t perfect. It’s time to start perfecting it.
The original version of this editorial included an incorrect date for when the texting-while-driving law was enacted.
