[CBS] LA parking officers caught handing out bogus tickets

November 12, 2014
parking ticket

After residents complained they were being ticketed on street cleaning days, even though the sweeper never showed up, Mayor Eric Garcetti promised he would change all that. (Korea Times file)

[CBS]

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — We caught Los Angeles parking officers writing ticket after ticket, hitting motorists with a $73 fine.

“It’s unfair, really unfair, and really bad,” said one woman who’d just been cited.

CBS2 investigative reporter David Goldstein found her ticket, and potentially thousands of others, should never have been issued.

“These are five people that got tickets that shouldn’t have gotten them,” Goldstein said to one of the officers handing out the inappropriate tickets.

“Sir, to my knowledge, I had no idea,” the officer responded.

All the tickets were issued for street cleaning violations because there is no parking on certain days of the week.

CBS2 found that 622,873 tickets had been issued since Dec. 1, 2013, and city officials collected $45, 469, 729 in fines.

But after residents complained they were being ticketed on street cleaning days, even though the sweeper never showed up, Mayor Eric Garcetti promised he would change all that.

Last December, the city launched a website, updated everyday, that shows routes with relaxed parking enforcement because the sweeper was canceled.

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