Data is showing that Seattle’s parking ticket mistake will cost it up to $5M in refunds and canceled citations. Local and city government leaders including the mayor and city council members are trying to get to the bottom of the mistake. They are saying that it will have to issue refunds and cancel citations that will need to be scrapped.
The reason this flub happened was because for seven months the city’s parking enforcement officers were writing tickets even though they were not authorized to do so. They wrote about 200,000 parking tickets. Now either the citations will be voided or monies refunded to those who have paid them after the city missed a crucial step with how parking enforcement officers issue tickets.
Information was provided to the public on which tickets were in question. The timeframe for the parking tickets in question is from September 2021 to April 5, 2022.
Harrell sent KOMO News a statement saying: “Our administration has worked to make the ticket dismissal and refund process as swift and seamless as possible for those impacted. As mayor, I’m making it a priority to build a culture of collaboration between City departments that ensures we are coordinating and working together as One Seattle to support and improve services for all Seattle residents. I encourage those with impacted tickets, or who may have impacted tickets, to visit Seattle.gov/parking-ticket-refunds to learn more about the refund and dismissal process.”
Drivers believe the city’s course of action is fair. They suffered the experience of the price and pain of parking in downtown Seattle which also cause many to have a large amount to pay. And, it all happened because last August, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to move parking enforcement officers from the Seattle Police Department to the Seattle Department of Transportation. This was a part of the plan following calls to reimagine policing in the city.
The special commissions are given to personnel who perform law enforcement responsibilities outside of SPD. The mayor said after learning the special commissions need to issue the tickets had not been properly issued, the Harrell Administration issued a directive to both agencies to complete the commissions. The completed commissions for all of the parking enforcement officers were delivered by April 5.
