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Driving with suspended licenses carries little risk in Phila.

Pennsylvania law is clear: Defendants must be jailed for at least two months if caught driving after their license has been suspended for a DUI conviction.

Pennsylvania law is clear: Defendants must be jailed for at least two months if caught driving after their license has been suspended for a DUI conviction.

But that's not what happens most of the time in Philadelphia.

While city police issue about 800 tickets for driving on so-called DUI-suspended licenses every year, fewer than one in five sticks.

The rest of the defendants have their cases dismissed or they simply flee, court records show, taking advantage of years of Traffic Court disarray.

Some drivers with as many as six outstanding warrants are still on the road, with little worry that anybody is out there looking for them.

Police nab these offenders only by happenstance - when, say, they pull over speeders and check their records.

As for the court system, fugitives for driving on DUI suspensions are a low priority, officials acknowledge.

And when Philadelphia police do catch offenders, even those with multiple warrants, officers typically just issue them another ticket or a notice to appear later in court.

Court records show that some people who have been caught numerous times for driving on DUI-suspended licenses can stay on the road for years.

Even when people are arrested for other crimes, prosecutors and court officials say it's often impractical to fully check outstanding warrants for tickets that carry jail time.

After all, Traffic Court currently has 818,935 outstanding scofflaw warrants for moving violations - about one for every two Philadelphians - and for police, searching for the most serious ones can be a daunting task.