Law causes headaches DMV

May 16--PLAISTOW -- Lawyers and lawmakers are grappling with the unintended consequences of a new privacy regulation that has caused long wait times or the outright denial of traffic accident information.

Under a new reading of the Driver Privacy Act adopted last year, police departments are barred from releasing accident reports or any information on them. Instead, the information may only be released by the Department of Motor Vehicles -- a process that can take weeks or months, if the information is released at all.

"That becomes a real problem. My own wife was in motor vehicle collision last week in which she was not at fault. Now I'm sitting here trying to make a claim against the other driver's insurance agency without the information from traffic report," Concord attorney Jonathan Cohen said. "In my particular case, the officer couldn't even tell me who the insurance company was."

The new regulation has become an issue for the victims in fender benders and other traffic collisions. But, it has also brought into question if and when citizens will be informed of elected officials' arrests.

DMV officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the new regulations and how many accident reports they will oversee the release of every year.

"People haven't taken it out on us, but we do hear complaints. I'm hearing it's taking three to four months sometimes. We can get it out in two or three weeks, at most," Windham Police Captain Michael Caron said.

According to data from the town of Plaistow, their police department responded to approximately 350 motor vehicle accidents in both 2015 and 2016. There are 234 cities and towns in New Hampshire.

"I suspect there's going to be much more of a backlog than there already is... We've already been sworn at when we tell people they have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles," Dover Police Chief Anthony F. Colarusso told legislators last month.

The Driver Privacy Act is also being used to hide public records.

County attorneys and DMV officials have denied several requests to release accident and police reports in the weeks since Plaistow selectman Tammy Bergeron was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after a crash that injured multiple people in another car.

Plaistow Police Chief Kathy Jones stated in a letter to The Eagle-Tribune's attorneys that the Rockingham County attorney's office told her not to release the report.

The DMV has also declined to release the report unless Bergeron signed a release. The act established that driving records are confidential and can only be released with the driver's permission.

"People ought to be able to know about what their elected officials are doing. But, the counter to that is that the elected official is also a citizen and has the rights of a citizen," Cohen said, adding that it can certainly be argued that elected officials have a diminished expectation of privacy.

Though law enforcement agencies had been able to release accident reports for many years, they can now face legal penalties for doing so.

Colarusso also told legislators that it is unclear whether police agencies can release logs -- also public documents -- detailing the calls officers respond to and the names of arrested persons to the media. This is the mechanism through which the few details of Bergeron's arrest became known.

Legislation currently making its way through the New Hampshire Legislature would remedy the potential wait for traffic accident victims.

An amendment to House Bill 437 sponsored by Sen. David Watters (D-Dover) would return law enforcement agencies' rights to release traffic report information.

While the new regulations have lightened the paperwork Windham Police must process, Caron said that he was in favor of police departments once again distributing traffic accident reports.

"It's part of our duties. We're the one writing and handling the reports, and we can answer any questions people have about them," Caron said.

The legislation does not address the release of information to third parties like the media.

"This may be an issue that needs some further examination. What we were trying to do was address the immediate crisis," Watters said.

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