CHP Smog Check ALL OVER Long Beach and Seal Beach

[aus]

I've been seeing some major smog check stations around Los Alamitos, Long Beach and Seal Beach lately where I work and live.

They used to do them on the side of the road, but these have been much larger where they block off 1 of 2 lanes and back up traffic to run the test. It's always set up somewhere on a stretch of road where you can't turn around either because there's an island in the middle.

I saw one on the East bound Willow/Los Alamitos blvd where you go over the river bed and today another one on West bound Westminister blvd as you enter Long Beach next to Leisure World. Both places have large islands and you can't turn around.

Has anyone else seen these things set up more lately?
I know everyone says you can say you don't want to do it or don't have time, but I'd like to confirm with someone who's been able to get away with saying that?

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[Longboarder]

Wow that sucks. I've never seen one in South OC where I live or mid OC (Newport) where I work.

So what exactly happens when you drive through one of these?

[M3PO]

Adam, I saw one on University drive right near UCI once. Apparently, they are for "research" purposes to determine how many car would fail and they are voluntary, you can decline.

If you agree and fail, they send you to the Ref.

[aus]

Originally Posted by Longboarder

Wow that sucks. I've never seen one in South OC where I live or mid OC (Newport) where I work.

So what exactly happens when you drive through one of these?

It looks like every few cars, they ask you to get on the dyno they have there. I was in the M3 with Akra EVO and there was no car on the dyno and was sweating it a little, but luckily didn't get picked to go on. Now I know, if there's a back-up for now reason, just turn around and find another way around it, but you have to see it early because once you're in the line, there's no way to turn around due to the big island in the middle of the road.

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[Longboarder]

Originally Posted by M3PO

Adam, I saw one on University drive right near UCI once. Apparently, they are for "research" purposes to determine how many car would fail and they are voluntary, you can decline.

If you agree and fail, they send you to the Ref.

Sh*t that sucks. So if you say that you are late for a work or something, then they have to let you go??

Originally Posted by aus

It looks like every few cars, they ask you to get on the dyno they have there. I was in the M3 with Akra EVO and there was no car on the dyno and was sweating it a little, but luckily didn't get picked to go on. Now I know, if there's a back-up for now reason, just turn around and find another way around it, but you have to see it early because once you're in the line, there's no way to turn around due to the big island in the middle of the road.

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Good advice. Would an Akra Evo (with 100 cel cats I believe) fail?

[M3PO]

Originally Posted by Longboarder

Sh*t that sucks. So if you say that you are late for a work or something, then they have to let you go??

I have not tried it myself but heard many times that it is voluntary and you can decline, excuse or not. Jason got nailed by one of these a while back in the SS3 E30 with straight pipes. He might know more than me.

[THE-FN-MAN]

wtf Cali. This state is getting worse and worse lol

[jeongsikkim]

Originally Posted by M3PO

I have not tried it myself but heard many times that it is voluntary and you can decline, excuse or not. Jason got nailed by one of these a while back in the SS3 E30 with straight pipes. He might know more than me.

Brent please don't tell me i know that car.

hahaha

[aus]

Originally Posted by Longboarder

Good advice. Would an Akra Evo (with 100 cel cats I believe) fail?

No way an EVO would pass. Even with test pipes and stock 200 cpi cats, it's doubtful it would ass.

.

[PandaM3]

Turns out if you refuse... The license plate gets entered in a database...

[JsL]

Thanks for the scan. WTF Cali... Haven't seen one in the Bay Area yet and hopefully it remains that way!

[EuroKar]

Plus I think that they scan for codes also. Don't know how true that is..
It sucks they are so strict here.

[BPMSport]

Originally Posted by PandaM3

Turns out if you refuse... The license plate gets entered in a database...

Wow this is crazy, I've never seen this before. Thanks for posting that doc. Must be an OC thing.

Definitely better to decline and be put on a list for "later analysis" than to fail and get sent to a referee.

[psuwcc112]

FYI, just saw one in Milpitas this morning. I guess they are in North CA now..

[JsL]

Originally Posted by psuwcc112

FYI, just saw one in Milpitas this morning. I guess they are in North CA now..

Dam...

I read something on here saying that CA is doing away with dyno Smogs and adopting OBDII checks as Smog'ing the vehicle. This seem contradictory to that.

[Route 16]

Originally Posted by psuwcc112

FYI, just saw one in Milpitas this morning. I guess they are in North CA now..

yay now I can pass smog without going to a smog shop next year...noooooot

[Hujan]

Suspicion-less stops (i.e., stopping a motor vehicle without any legitimate reason to expect that the driver of particular vehicle is committing a crime) are almost never legal under the Fourth Amendment. They are categorically illegal in the context of a roving patrol, and rarely legal in the context of a checkpoint.

Essentially, to be legal, a checkpoint must be directed toward some imminent threat to public safety and cannot be for more general crime fighting or police activity. Thus, courts have upheld checkpoints to remove drunk drivers from the road, for immigration, and even to identify unlicensed drivers. But courts have repeatedly rejected checkpoints for drug interdiction and other similarly non-emergent police activity.

A checkpoint to verify whether vehicles comply with emissions regulations cannot be justified as necessary to protect from a imminent threat. This is the reason why they are "voluntary." Simply put, the CHP cannot forcibly detain you to verify emissions compliance at a checkpoint. They know this but are counting on you not knowing it.

The practice of recording your information if you exercise your Fourth Amendment right to refuse the test is probably not constitutional either, but it is probably a nonissue anyway. I don't see what they can do with that illegally-obtained information.

By the way, for the extreme Libs among us, this is what big government and over regulation gets you.

[Flying Ace]

Originally Posted by Route 16

yay now I can pass smog without going to a smog shop next year...noooooot

hell, you have a point there. If they want to waste my time with this, they should at least allow me to pass smog for the next year and issue me a certificate for this.

it's only fair this way. How the hell are they going to waste my time, pass me, then tell me to go in in 6-months and pay to do another test?

(I can pass smog btw, just hate time wasting stuff like this)

[Flying Ace]

so according to their website and newspaper articles:

1. if you agree and fail, they will give you some paperwork that mentions remedies, and apparently it is not punitive, meaning no fines. (what is not known is if they flagged your car for another round of testing at an emissions location with a due date).

2. If you decline the test, there is no mention of anything that would happen to you. It simply says it's voluntary.

It appears up to 2011, the state only had 1 team operating in SoCal. Now they have 2 teams, with the other in NorCal. This would be a regular thing now in the Bay Area folks.

[my335i]

they had one of these smog check in Burbank where I work and was ready to tell them I don't want to do the check but they just told me to move on...

[Dave07997S]

Originally Posted by Hujan

Suspicion-less stops (i.e., stopping a motor vehicle without any legitimate reason to expect that the driver of particular vehicle is committing a crime) are almost never legal under the Fourth Amendment. They are categorically illegal in the context of a roving patrol, and rarely legal in the context of a checkpoint.

Essentially, to be legal, a checkpoint must be directed toward some imminent threat to public safety and cannot be for more general crime fighting or police activity. Thus, courts have upheld checkpoints to remove drunk drivers from the road, for immigration, and even to identify unlicensed drivers. But courts have repeatedly rejected checkpoints for drug interdiction and other similarly non-emergent police activity.

A checkpoint to verify whether vehicles comply with emissions regulations cannot be justified as necessary to protect from a imminent threat. This is the reason why they are "voluntary." Simply put, the CHP cannot forcibly detain you to verify emissions compliance at a checkpoint. They know this but are counting on you not knowing it.

The practice of recording your information if you exercise your Fourth Amendment right to refuse the test is probably not constitutional either, but it is probably a nonissue anyway. I don't see what they can do with that illegally-obtained information.

By the way, for the extreme Libs among us, this is what big government and over regulation gets you.

Unfortunately the US constitution doesn't mean shit in Commiefornia...