Aug 14, 2007 6:01 am US/Eastern
NYPD's Bogus Little Secret: Parking Ticket Quotas
Agents Often Caught Citing You For Violations You Didn't Commit
by Kirstin Cole
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Parking tickets are a cash cow for New York City, raking in close to $600 million a year.
But could that orange violation on your windshield be an illegal ticket for a legal spot?
The sign reads no parking 8 to 8:30 am, for street cleaning, but any time after that it's a legal spot to park on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx.
However, CBS 2 HD undercover cameras captured images of a driver chasing away a traffic officer trying to write her a bogus ticket.
"She says it's not a bus stop, I'm parked legitimate," Bronx resident Melvin Simon said.
The video was shot by Simon, who found out the hard way: Park here at your own peril.
"I got a ticket for parking in a legitimate spot," Simon said.
For $115.
"(The police officer) says, 'you're in a bus stop,'" Simon said. "I said, 'look up at the sign up there, I'm behind the sign,' so he apologized to me, but he already wrote the ticket."
And that's not the first time something like this has happened. Months earlier, Simon received a ticket at the same legal parking spot. It was dismissed, but that didn't stop the meter reader from issuing another one.
"He said, 'ok, go to court and take care of this one,'" Simon said.
Business owners on Westchester Avenue like John D'Angelo are so frustrated they're warning customers and say overzealous officers are hurting their businesses.
"They make up their own rules," said D'Angelo, owner of a bagel store. "I guess they have a quota or something."
It's the city's dirty little ticket secret, quotas. And last week, four traffic agents were arrested and charged with writing dozens of bogus tickets. The city said the agents were just lazy.
"I don't think it was laziness, which is the official NYPD line," parking expert Erik Feder said. "I think they were trying to fulfill a quota."
Feder said in 2006 a city arbitrator confirmed agents are forced to meet ticketing quotas.
"There were internal memos written by the NYPD to their officers that stated they had to write x number of tickets every month," Feder said.
But if you think you're the target of a bogus ticket blitz, Feder said you can fight it.
"It often results in a reduction, if not a complete dismissal," Feder said.
Simon is currently appealing his ticket and, along with his neighbors, vows to keep fighting the illegal actions.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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