Politics & Government
Criminals Use Rental Cars to Escape Identification
Rental car companies don't have to link names of customers with short-term leases to the state's motor vehicle registry. But that must change, said city councilor Robert Consalvo.
After learning that drug dealers, gangsters and prostitutes have been using rental cars to carry out crimes incognito, Councilor Robert Consalvo called for reforms so that Boston Police officers could instantly identify drivers.
Consalvo said at Wednesday’s regular meeting at City Hall that Massachusetts law doesn’t require rental companies to provide the state’s motor vehicle registry with the name of the person who rents a car for 30 days or fewer.
Criminals know this, he said, and use the loophole to stay under the radar of police, who regularly scan the license plates of cars that match the description of those reportedly used for misdeeds.
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Even if a witness tells police the brand, model and license plate number of a rented vehicle, Consalvo said, police can only find out from searching the registry the name and location of the rental company. For example, police could discover that the car came from “Hertz Rent-a-Car, Logan Airport,” but not who was driving it at the time of a crime.
Consalvo said that he’s talked about the issue with at least 10 police officers in his district, which includes Hyde Park and Mattapan.
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Updating the law to catch criminals
The state law that allows the loophole, Chapter 90, Section 32D, requires only that rental car companies keep a written record of who rents a vehicle and make it available to the public during business hours or upon written request of the police chief.
“Clearly, this is a loophole from when they wrote legislation before the advent of computers,” Consalvo said. “But really, it’s a dangerous loophole. Police need this information so that they can immediately begin to investigate these crimes.”
He said that it would be the responsibility of city and state legislators to update the law to require rental car companies to use the Internet to link the names of all customers to the registry and ensure that the Boston Police department could use the information.
The council delegated the matter to its Committee on Public Safety.
