Ft. Wayne, IN, has a problem. They have 11,500 unpaid tickets totaling more than a third of a million dollars. What to do? What to do?
My take is that with any crime, the further you get from the moment, the less likely you are to resolve the violation. The older the tickets are, the harder they are to collect. This means enforcement, and enforcement from day one.
What if a person was given a month to pay or contest their citation, and after that, their car was fair game. Give a towing or booting company a list and let them have at it. I’m sure the costs could be covered by the person wanting to get their car back.
Would there be problems and complaints. Sure and if the private firms got too aggressive, boot them out and find someone who understands. However if you are going to charge for parking citations, they make no sense if you don’t enforce. Sending letters doesn’t hack it. One reminder, and then booth. My guess is that number of unpaid citations in Ft. Wayne and elsewhere would plummet if people knew that the alternative was a long, bureaucratic conversation in a towing yard at the edge of town with someone named Spike.
Just my humble thoughts
JVH
