Have you ever asked a police officer what would happen if you fail to sign a traffic citation? A limousine driver from Nashville found out the answer the hard way.
Police stopped and questioned the 33-year old limo driver because he was speeding and his music was turned up too loud. An arrest report filed on New Year’s Eve shows that police asked the suspect three times to turn the music down before writing him a “Noise Violation” citation. After the citation was written, the man allegedly refused to sign it. After a second request to sign the citation failed, the subject was arrested on a single charge of Failing to Sign a Citation. The subject was booked under a $500 bond and was bailed out the following day.
So the question we have been asked at WGNS since airing this story: Is it legal to arrest someone who refuses to sign a citation? The answer is 100% “Yes,” according to the Office of the Attorney General in Tennessee. In an opinion released in 2006, “Tennessee Code Annotated 7-63-101, et seq., provides that a municipal officer may arrest a person who refuses to sign a citation for a city code or ordinance violation, and there is no authority in Tennessee to suggest that such an arrest is unconstitutional.”
The suspect from the case in Murfreesboro will appear in court this February.
