Government

Gotten a Parking Ticket Lately? Chicago Court Rules It Could Pose ‘Very Real Safety and Security Concerns’

7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Personal Information on Parking Tickets Violates the Law

(Image: Shutterstock)

Could your parking ticket left under the wiper on your windshield reveal too much information about you? A U.S. appeals court thinks so and has ruled against a Chicago suburb‘s police department that disclosed the vehicle owner’s name, address, gender and more on the ticket.

According to Wired, the case itself dates back to 2010 when Jason Senne from Palatine Village, Ill., decided to sue the police department for the information appearing on his parking ticket as violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ majority opinion issued by Judge Kenneth Ripple stated that including personal information like his full name, address, driver’s license number, date of birth, sex, height and weight present “very real safety and security concerns at stake here”:

For example, an individual seeking to stalk or rape can go down a street where overnight parking is banned and collect the home address and personal information of women whose vehicles have been tagged. He can ascertain the name, exact address including the apartment number and even other information such as sex, age, height and weight pertinent to his nefarious intent. Similarly, a
public official, having gone to great lengths to protect himself and his family from the threat of violence that unfortunately every public official faces, bears the risk that an expired parking meter violation might provide an opportunity for an individual intent on causing the official or his family bodily harm or death.

Not all the judges agreed though. Circuit Judge Richard Posner writes that the tickets holding said information would not facilitate stalking:

Only with difficulty can one imagine a stalker who, noticing a woman he’d like to stalk get into her car and drive off, follows her and when she parks lurks behind her car in the hope that it will be ticketed and that if that happens he’ll be able without being observed to peek at the ticket and discover the owner’s name and address. Has this ever happened? The plaintiff’s lawyer admitted at oral argument never having heard of such a thing. A far more plausible strategy for a stalker who had come across his intended victim’s vehicle would be to follow her home, without having to rely on her parking illegally and the police coming along and writing a ticket rich in personal information.

[...]

And even if listing height and weight on a ticket is gratuitous, the majority’s decision is apt to entangle the courts in closer questions of the legitimacy of including particular personal information on a parking ticket, questions that will generate costly and time-consuming litigation and pointless wealth transfers from taxpayers to violators of the parking laws.

Wired notes that with 32,000 citations issued by the police department in the last four years, at $2,500 per violation of the law it could add up to $80 million for the city.

Comments (32)

  • DeepFriedTexan
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 10:36pm

    Ah, yes! Rahm’s buddies at work. Let’s give all the criminals in Chicago a few more ideas!

    Report Post » DeepFriedTexan  
  • DeepFriedTexan
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 10:34pm

    Chicago is a HELL HOLE! I lived there for years, but I escaped in 2000. Funny! As long as I lived there, and was in a PhD program, I never HEARD of Barry Ohblahblah!!! Funny! How between 2000 and 2008, he gained enough cred to become POTUS! I always knew something was fishy with this whole thing…. I tried to tell people but everyone had Barry Fever. No more, though. You NEVER see OBummo bumper stickers in TX anymore, that is, unless the person really is mentally handicapped.

    Report Post » DeepFriedTexan  
  • bigdaddybernie
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 3:12pm

    Not only is it a parking ticket, it’s also a Democrat “ REGISTRATION FORM ” !

    Report Post »  
    • Machtyn
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 4:03pm

      Exactly. With that much information on a ticket, a person can register for a valid drivers license, new social security number, a number of things. It might be a stretch to think of a rapist or stalker, but it is no stretch to think of a identity thief taking that information.

      Report Post »  
  • JACKTHETOAD
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 1:50pm

    I‘d like to park my ass right on Rahm’s face!

    Report Post » JACKTHETOAD  
  • CommonSenseTalk
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 11:37am

    Just do what ever government will have to do. Raise property taxes and cut services, this way all the top government workers that do nothing will get the 80k to 280k per year cutting services and taxing more. Oh yea and asking feds for more money.

    Report Post »  
  • Iamnotanumber
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 10:13am

    This department needs to get it together. The technology exists to issue citations without all this personal info on them. This outcome was predictable. The PD needs to improve thier game if they wanna enforce parking regs.

    Report Post »  
    • Fantastic Four
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 10:34am

      Still you get a parking ticket for
      streets you pay for with taxes
      by officers that you pay taxes for
      who follow regulations from officials that you pay taxes for
      and pay for from your hard work that gets taxed

      Report Post » Fantastic Four  
  • bdandsl
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 9:19am

    How does the cops have all this information if he car in unoccupyed? I mean, the license number gives info but, that does not say who is driving the car. I gotten a parking ticket before and all that was on it was the license number, violation and date. NO personal info. I paid the ticket asap. I’m confused. Is it just Chicago?

    Report Post » bdandsl  
    • Dougral Supports Israel
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 9:26am

      They probably run the driver license of the person who is listed as owning the car. There’s no need to put all that information on the ticket. The cop could run a quick check to make sure the vehicle is legally registered then issue a ticket with just the tag info. Don’t pay the fine and the state comes after the owner.

      Report Post »  
    • lookatthefactsjack
      Posted on August 11, 2012 at 6:45am

      Simple solution to this problem….Don’t park illegally!
      Then there won’t be a ticket..Duh
      No ticket, no info.
      If you don’t want that info out there, OBEY THE LAW

      Report Post » lookatthefactsjack  
  • scrudge
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 8:37am

    Ah Yes…. cHICAGO….. the nations number one murder city… only those wishing to die go there

    Report Post »  
    • G-WHIZ
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 10:17am

      Hey in Chi-twn Y’a goes home and has-ta park 5-10blocks from Y‘a pad cus dousins of people who ’don-liv-dere park in fire-plugs, on grass, front of alleys, have no plates,registration,city-stkrs, and houndreds of unpaid tickets on their dash-boards and under-wipers and on-da-floors. OH I FORGOT!! They’re minorities,druggies,gang-bangers and/or illegals…not needed to obey any laws!

      Report Post »  
    • Walkabout
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 1:03pm

      G-WHIZ

      If a car with the same tag / VIN has a dozen of so unpaid tickets it needs to get towed. problem solved

      Report Post »  
  • teddrunk
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 8:24am

    In Chicago, parking tickets are nothing compared to being constantly bothered by professional panhandlers. Who’d go to Chicago anyhow? It’s an ugly corrupt town.

    Report Post »  
  • piper60
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:39am

    I agree. Too much information.

    Report Post » piper60  
  • TJexcite
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:33am

    All it would take to fix is a simple update to the ticket printing software. The DMV has all the information and the system printed what is on file. Now they have to just print what is allowed and not all information they have.

    Print what was on the ticket before the days when you could type the plate number in to a hand held devices and get everything.

    Report Post » TJexcite  
  • Dolt
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:29am

    Some Judges did not agree with the stalking premise. OK, fine. What about Identity theft? I, too, would have filed a lawsuit under the guise of very real, potential theft of personal information that the city negligently left unsecured in a public space.

    Report Post »  
  • HanginChad
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:18am

    The “$2,500 per violation” that is referenced in the article is referring to the penalty for violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, not the fines assessed as a result of the parking tickets themselves.

    The writing in the last paragraph of this article is a bit clumsy.

    Report Post »  
  • mikefromaltoona
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:01am

    $2500 per violation? Are we talking parking violations here? Yikes!!!!!

    Report Post » mikefromaltoona  
  • thunder4570
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 6:58am

    the really scary part of the story is the fine…$2,500 for an expired meter are they serious? I cant believe what people put up with these days.

    Report Post » thunder4570  
    • Grasshopper42
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:07am

      My thoughts, exactly. Maybe it’s a typo. The Blaze make a typo, no!

      Report Post » Grasshopper42  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:19am

      I’ve spent time in Chicago once. I’d rather return to NYC if was forced to choose one, and that is saying a lot.

      Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
    • Walkabout
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 1:05pm

      Maybe Wired magazine writer made the typo? 32,000 * $,500 per ticket does add up to 80 million dollars.

      These are the same cities that the Regional Equity Movement yahoos want to force people back into.

      Report Post »  
  • historyguy48
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 6:46am

    Now this one is simple to cure. Just stop passing out parking tickets. Those cops can now do real police work, like protect Krispy Kreem or Dunkin Donuts! (Oh that’s right, they already do that!)
    Well then perhaps they can improve their response time, from ten minutes after a home invader had broken into a home and killed it’s occupants, to 9 minutes!
    See, wouldn’t that be more useful than passing out parking tickets for your protection? Remember, those tickets are illegal if they are for revenue so, like red light or speeding cameras, they are for your protection.
    I wonder why America is collapsing under the absurdity of all the nonsense taking the place of reality?

    Report Post » historyguy48  
    • loriann12
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 7:13am

      A lot of towns employ “Public Service Officers” where their only job is non-violent activities, like the old meter maids. They write parking violations, take witness statements, etc, and don’t carry a gun. I used to be a police dispatcher and the town I worked for had a couple.

      Report Post »  
    • FREEDOMoverFEAR
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 6:29pm

      Police should change their motto from “To protect and serve” to ” To intimidate and control.”

      Report Post » FREEDOMoverFEAR  

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love