Two months ago we noted how San Francisco parking officers routinely issued tickets to stolen vehicles that have been abandoned.
Mayor Breed ordered the practice stopped. [bold added]
Breed ordered the MTA to stop ticketing stolen cars hours after an Oct. 11 Chronicle investigation exposed the practice. The report showed that from May 1 to Sept. 17, SFMTA parking control officers ticketed 411 vehicles that had been reported stolen, issuing fines totaling nearly $70,000. Some were written up multiple times; one received eight citations.
The fix was simple.
The MTA and SFPD said in their letter to Breed that they coordinated with the state’s Department of Justice to obtain California’s stolen vehicle plate file. Then, according to MTA spokesperson Erica Kato, they loaded the file onto ticket writers’ devices. Now, whenever a ticket writer enters a stolen plate number into their device, they receive a message the car was stolen.
By not correcting the problem San Francisco increased its ticketing revenue. When it got caught, no one tried to defend the strategy. It's a small sign of encouragement that City officials had enough of a conscience to feel shame.
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