As Baltimore?s investigation of bogus parking tickets continues, one big question remains unanswered: What should the city do to prevent the scandal from happening again?
City officials have promised reform, but the fines, penalties and state flag fees, along with court time, have victims thinking about how to stop bogus ticket writing now.
“I would like to see accountability for each officer?s whereabouts during the work hours, with the burden of proof for a parking ticket being on the officer?s shoulders ? pictures, something of that sort,” said Jaclyn Schwarz, whose detective work unearthed 10 fake tickets written in her neighborhood in one evening.
“The parking fines division should use their eyes and brains to spot fishy or abnormal patterns of parking citations while they are entering the citations into the computer,” Schwarz added.
Erica Prentice, who took a day off from work to fight two bogus tickets, said her biggest complaint was that the scandal could have been prevented had a hostile traffic court judge heeded her warning.
“The agent?s damages could have been prevented if the parking enforcement agency and city addressed the complaints that occurred over a year ago, including mine,” she said.
Receiving two tickets in under five minutes cost Bud and Deborah Becker flag fees and penalties. He thinks the city and MVA need to work together to compensate the victims.
“Since this is a matter of two [entities] ? MVA and the city of Baltimore ? they need to make sure both have corrected their respective records,” Becker said.
Cartherine Kozlowski, whose story of getting a fake ticket for being illegally parked in Little Italy when her car was sitting in front of her Canton row house prompted Department of Transportation officials to admit fake tickets had been written, takes issues with quotas.
“To me, it sounds like the ?expectations? the agents should meet has been a big part of the problem,” she said. “It?s no excuse for issuing bogus tickets, but maybe this person and others felt pressured. The mayor needs to make sure that other employees aren?t put in similar positions.”
Anthony McCarthy, spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, said an overhaul of the city?s parking enforcement agency is in the works.
“There are many proposed changes that will be released with the report of Inspector General Hilton Green,” he said.
