Mass. RMV Hasn't Been Notifying Local Police Of Suspended, Revoked Licenses

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles is not regularly complying with a law that requires it to notify local police departments of driver's license suspensions and revocations, according to a review by The Boston Globe.

A 2014 law requires the RMV to "timely notify" local police of troubled drivers. It came about after 20-year-old Haley Cremer of Sharon was struck and killed in June 2014 by a man who was driving with a suspended license.

This review is the latest in a series of problems the agency has faced recently, including revelations of tens of thousands of unprocessed alerts from other states about traffic violations by Massachusetts drivers.

The Globe and the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association sent surveys to local police departments to learn more about the RMV's compliance with Haley's law. The surveys found that for the most part, RMV employees recorded license suspensions and revocations in a statewide database, but did not notify local departments of the notices.

The fallout around the RMV began last month when a crash in New Hampshire, allegedly by a Massachusetts driver who should have had his license revoked, killed seven people.

Following the crash, an internal review discovered officials at the RMV had been ignoring written out-of-state violation reports for over a year, leaving tens of thousands of warnings in storage. And the RMV also failed to warn other states about drivers' infractions in Massachusetts.

RMV head Erin Deveney resigned in June following the crash.

An oversight hearing on the RMV is scheduled for Monday to look at problems within the agency.