Parking Copenhagen run the parking in the Danish Capital. They enforce parking regulations. Citations are written and money collected. So far so good. Read all about it here.
When a local radio station decided to fight a ticket, they asked to see a copy of the parking rules, including the one they had broken. Now things begin to get fuzzy.
According to Parking Copenhagen:
the department argued that the data was ‘exempt from the law in that it is necessary for the protection of significant considerations regarding the implementation of public control, regulation or planning enterprises’.
The department added that if motorists became aware of the information they would lose respect for traffic law and probably try to work around the rules. The office also stated it wanted to avoid parking wardens getting into long, semantic arguments with motorists.
I can see how a bureaucrat would see this as logical. After all, if the accused doesn’t know what law he has broken, how can he argue about whether or not he is innocent or guilty. It does away with all those pesky rules about due process and the involvement of judges and juries.
Think how uncomplicated our parking enforcement would be if the rules weren’t published. No more red curbs, no more no parking signs, no posted limits. The enforcement staff would simply go around and write tickets and the people would pay the fines. Those “long semantic arguments would be avoided. All would be right with the world.
JVH
