By a 10-2 vote, it slammed the brakes on reforms decreed by the city attorney and permitted a return to deceptive, irresponsible plea bargains on traffic tickets.

Drivers who speed and commit other moving violations will again be able to plead to the less consequential charge of "defective equipment." That's only if they can afford a lawyer; the council unjustly dumped a plan to allow citizens to seek plea agreements on their own.

That will make Kansas City streets riskier and make it difficult for insurance companies to identify problem drivers. The result is higher rates for all.

The two sponsors, Councilmen George Blackwood and Terry Riley, said passage meant a return to the system used before city Attorney Galen Beaufort placed restrictions on traffic pleas in the spring.

It's unclear, for instance, whether speeders can obtain a plea bargain at 15 mph over the limit, as Beaufort decreed, or 20 mph over the limit, which was the old policy.

Beaufort's welcome reforms eliminated the defective equipment plea for moving violations, but let drivers plea to exceeding the speed limit by less than 5 mph — a no-point violation not routinely reported to insurance companies.

Some ticketed motorists and lawyers balked at that, and the City Council buckled. But members can partly redeem themselves by allowing the city attorney to retain sensible limits on which drivers can qualify for plea bargains.

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