Wrongly-issued Los Angeles parking ticket violations result in more than 124,000 tickets issued to drivers in error, $6 million of LA parking citations dismissed after city drivers fight and win fines dismissals.
Ticket error numbers are big and speak for themselves, uncovered by CBS Investigative Reporting, and its reporters who've delved into what seems an unusually high rates of parking tickets issued in the city of Los Angeles. And big ticket numbers means big revenue. An astronomical 124,000 in parking ticket dismissals over a year and one-half includes only dismissed citations from fighting drivers who were willing and able to contest those supposed violations.
LA drivers have to be persistent in contesting the supposed violations in order to win-and get back those ticket fines. Not all Los Angeles drivers have the time or energy to fight parking violations, so many go uncontested and unincluded in parking ticket error rate stats.
Denise Allen, issued a Los Angeles parking citation last year by a traffic enforcement officer who claimed her meter had expired, was not happy. "I looked at the meter and saw 11 minutes left. I couldn't believe that I got a ticket for an expired meter," Allen said, whom took a photo minutes later. "Either this police officer was lying or he [traffic enforcement officer] has serious vision problems. Either way, he should not be reading meters," Allen said.
CBS News searched 4.5 million Los Angeles city parking tickets issued over a one and one-half-year span and ending April 2009. Los Angeles Administrative Hearing Officer, Judith Segall, says it makes her suspicious [that the parking ticket might be issued erroneously], "When I see that it's always the same kind of violation by the same [parking enforcement] officer," Segall said.
LA Department of Transportation (DOT) says it considers an acceptable level of parking tickets dismissed to be around 3 percent. CBS News Investigative Reporting found more than 175 Los Angeles officers well above that DOT 3 percent limit, with some officers having two or three times more than the Department of Transportation acceptable number.
CBS News checked stats pertaining to Los Angeles Parking Enforcement Officers writing more than 1,000 tickets, and results are startling (though maybe not quite as startling to anyone receiving erroneously-issued parking citations in the Los Angeles area).
One Los Angeles parking enforcement officer had a nearly 12 percent parking ticket dismissal rate. That LA officer had 604 citations, about four times the acceptable DOT rate, and equivalent to about $17,250 in ticket fines that stayed in the pockets of drivers. Other Los Angeles Parking Enforcement Officers had respective 10 percent of tickets dismissed and 7.5 percent of tickets overturned or dismissed-$81,000 in fines returned to Los Angeles drivers.
For Los Angeles drivers who've been issued that parking ticket or citation in error, contest that citation in writing through the City of Los Angeles, at physical address attached to this wack. Get that parking ticket contest form received by the City of Los Angeles within 21 days from ticket issuance, or it'll be tossed.