As the chorus of residents complaining of bogus parking tickets turns from a trickle into a deluge, the Baltimore City inspector general said the case could be turned over to city prosecutors.
Hilton Green, the inspector general, said his investigation into ticketing agents issuing false citations was “serious.”
“We are dealing with situations where individuals have to appear in court. If these citations turn out to be fraudulent, then I plan to take this to the city state?s attorney?s office,” he said.
Green, however, declined to comment on the scope of his investigation, including how many agents are being questioned.
“Once I start an investigation, I don?t comment on that,” he said.
Still, the city?s chief investigator of employee fraud said his office had been overwhelmed with complaints from people claiming they received bogus tickets.
“The phone has been ringing off the hook,” Green said. “I received a lot of inquiries, and interviews are in the process of being scheduled.”
The Examiner revealed in a series ofstories that area residents had received warning notices in the mail about parking violations for locations where they say they were not parked. The city?s Department of Transportation subsequently admitted bogus tickets had been written, but said the matter was handled internally and limited to a single agent.
But Mayor Sheila Dixon called for the inspector general to investigate after receiving reports of other agents writing bogus tickets.
Dixon said in an interview that she was still concerned about the rash of reports that fake tickets had been written.
“I?m going to get to the bottom of this, and we?re going to deal with it,” she said before a meeting with Department of Transportation officials.
“The issue of the tickets was added to the agenda of a previously scheduled meeting with DOT administrators,” Dixon spokesman Anthony McCarthy said.
The Dixon administration denied that agents had quotas, but City Councilman Jack Young, D-12th District, said he was concerned that the questions about the integrity of ticket agents could undermine the city?s parking enforcement.
“We don?t want everyone crying wolf,” he said. “We could be opening up Pandora?s box.”
