Some News Reporters Use ‘Connections’ to Avoid Paying Tickets

Dozens of news reporters and photographers use Police Department connections to get parking citations dismissed in San Diego, a widespread practice that some journalists say undermines the media’s credibility when covering the police.

For years, police officials have routinely canceled parking tickets for the media without scrutinizing the citations to determine whether they were legitimate. In many cases, police sources said, reporters have abused the department’s lenient ticket dismissal policy.

An investigation by The Times has revealed widespread abuses of ticket dismissals by the Police Department. The Times reported Sunday that the department routinely violates its own policies by dismissing thousands of tickets for flimsy or fabricated excuses or none at all. Those able to get tickets canceled included family and friends of Police Chief Bill Kolender, influential businessmen, police officers and many news reporters.

A search of police records revealed 194 citations that have been voided for the media since January, 1985.

The worst offenders were television stations KGTV (Channel 10) with 64 and KFMB (Channel 8) with 54, followed by KSDO radio with 25 and KCST (Channel 39) with 13. Reporters at The San Diego Union had eight tickets dismissed, the Tribune five and the Los Angeles Times and the Reader had three each. Two parking citations issued to reporters using Union-Tribune vehicles also were dismissed.

But the numbers are substantially higher, police officials said. During the recent Superior Court trials of former mayor Roger Hedgecock and suspected police killer Sagon Penn, police spokesman Bill Robinson said he personally dismissed more than 100 tickets for reporters who parked illegally around the courthouse. All but a few of those cancellations were missing from police files.

Asst. Police Chief Bob Burgreen said that department policy provides exemptions for the media because “freedom of the press” is more important than strict enforcement of parking violations.

“We want the media to get a story,” Burgreen said. “We want them to do their job, and if they can’t find a parking place that’s within the law, we want them to come as close as they can.

“I’m saying this full well knowing that there are going to be some people in the general public who don’t think that’s fair. . . . We are doing favors for media people, and we are taking their word for it that they are in the media business because we don’t take the time to police that unless there’s obvious examples of abuse.”

Burgreen said the Police Department prefers to issue citations to all media vehicles and later evaluate dismissal requests rather than distribute placards that permit reporters to park anywhere they please, a procedure used in some large cities.

Under the current system, police officials assume that supervisors at TV and radio stations and newspapers are screening the parking citations before they are turned over to the Police Department, Burgreen said.

At Channel 10, however, the news department turns over all parking tickets issued to its staff.

“We automatically forward them to police headquarters,” said Paul Sands, KGTV news director. “I sign off on all of them. Then they determine whether they will let it go or we have to pay. Any one they question, we will pay.”

In some cases, tickets have been returned to the media because reporters had parked illegally in a handicapped zone or were not conducting business at the time. For example, a Channel 10 news crew tried to get a ticket fixed for parking in a red zone outside a restaurant while eating lunch, according to a police source.

Such abuses could spell the end for the parking privileges extended to the media, Burgreen said.

“Obviously, what could happen is we kill the whole goose that’s laying the golden eggs,” Burgreen said.

Lt. Charles Ellis, head of the public affairs division, agreed that his office is “very liberal” with the media.

“I don’t know whether it’s good or bad,” Ellis said. “If it were up to me, I wouldn’t pick up any tickets. It’s easier that way.”

News executives in San Diego are split about the propriety of journalists getting tickets fixed.

The Reader and the Los Angeles Times are the only two news organizations in San Diego that prohibit news employees from trying to get a ticket dismissed under any circumstances. In contrast, Channel 10 has no concern about the practice and KSDO radio has its tickets canceled to save money.

“We don’t want any favors from anybody,” said Jim Mullin, editor of the Reader. “The distance that is necessary in order to write objectively about an institution like the Police Department is compromised every time some little favor is done. It may not seem like much to have one parking ticket dismissed, but that is one little favor they have done you. If hundreds of tickets are dismissed, that is hundreds of favors they have done you.

“Sooner or later, the possibility exists that they are going to ask for a favor in return. That is the point at which news judgment has been compromised.”

Officials at Channel 8 said they ask police to dismiss only those tickets issued to news crews covering City Hall or the courts in the congested downtown area, where few parking spaces are available for TV vans. These are the guidelines established by police and San Diego Press Photographers Assn.

“We realize what’s being done is we’re being given a favor to help cover the news,” said Ben Cutshall, chief photographer at Channel 8. “If we abuse that privilege, it will be rough on everybody.”

Channel 39 is the only major television station in San Diego which has a policy to pay for parking citations issued to its reporters.

“I figure that if the guy who loads and unloads vegetables can’t do it, why should we?” asked Tom Mitchell, chief assignment editor at Channel 39. “I don’t see why we have to break the law to do our job.”

Mitchell said he was surprised that Channel 39 had 13 tickets dismissed. After checking with his employees, Mitchell said he learned that a police spokesman told his photographers he would pick up any tickets issued in front of City Hall and the courthouse.

Mitchell added that his news team does not want to be beholden to the Police Department for the relatively minor expense of parking tickets.

“It’s not worth us making a big deal out of. That’s chewing gum . . . “ Mitchell said. “I certainly don’t want to be in a situation where I am always asking for favors from anybody.”

Other broadcast media hold a different view.

Kelly Wheeler, news director at KSDO radio, said he has his police reporter, Wade Douglas, seek dismissals when it appears the station “may be able to get it fixed . . . “

“But we don’t go to them if we know it’s not feasible to try and get it taken care of,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler conceded that asking police to “fix” a ticket puts the station in a compromising position should police ask a favor in return.

“We just don’t really want to be in that position,” Wheeler said. “We could pay them all. Obviously, we don’t want to because they’re expensive, anywhere from $18 to $25. Obviously if you can get them taken care of, great.”

Channel 10’s Sands said, “Sometimes, it’s a matter of quite simply, you get a late start, the council is meeting at 2 p.m., you have to carry a camera, tripod, lights, other equipment and transport it upstairs. It is not like anybody walking in with a notebook.”

Jerry Warren, editor of the San Diego Union, did not express concern that his staff had the Police Department dismiss between 8 and 10 tickets, including three by police reporter Dick Weber and one by J. Stryker Meyer, who specializes in law enforcement coverage.

Warren said he is not aware of a policy that forbids Union reporters from getting parking citations canceled, but “We would frown on it.” Without knowing the circumstance, he declined to comment on the ethical issue of a police reporter taking tickets to the Police Department.

Tribune deputy editor Bob Witty said he was surprised to learn that police dismissed at least five citations for his reporters.

“I was not aware anyone has gone and asked to get a ticket suspended,” Witty said. “Generally, our policy is if you get a ticket, you pay for it.”

Witty said that though reporters may feel they should not have received a citation, editors at The Tribune would prefer to know when tickets are being taken care of by police.

Dale Fetherling, editor of The Times San Diego County Edition, said he does not approve of employees attempting to get police to void tickets.

“The policy of The Times is that parking and traffic tickets are solely the responsibility of the employee,” Fetherling said. “They are not picked up by the company, and there is to be no attempt to ‘fix’ them. . . . If there is an extenuating circumstance, I think they should go to court.”

Despite that policy, two Times photographers and a free-lancer brought tickets to the police to have them dismissed. One of two citations against the free-lance writer, Thomas K. Arnold, was issued “while parked at the Los Angeles Times while (he) was inside building on business . . .” said the explanation on the dismissal form.

Police canceled a parking ticket issued in May, 1985, to Times staff photographer Don Bartletti.

If he had known that Arnold or Bartletti had gone to the Police Department, Fetherling said, he would have not allowed the tickets to be canceled. Fetherling cited a case in August, 1985, in which he put a stop to attempts by staff photographer Barbara Martin to have police overturn a ticket for parking illegally in a red zone.

Mullin, the Reader editor, said he was “embarrassed and unhappy” to learn that two of his writers had parking tickets dismissed within the past year. According to police records, Arnold had two citations canceled and Sue Garson one while they were were working on Reader stories.

The Reader management will demand that Arnold and Garson repay the fines to the city because “they were wrong in using their connection with the Reader as any sort of legitimate excuse for having gotten a ticket in the first place,” Mullin said.

Mullin said he was bothered that the Police Department did not attempt to verify the validity of the requests with Reader management.

“What I think is obvious is the fact that (the Police Department’s) trust has been abused,” Mullin said.

Larry Remer, editor and publisher of the weekly Newsline, was issued a ticket in August for illegally parking in a loading zone near the federal courthouse to cover a vigil for peace.

Remer--a frequent critic of the media and politicians in San Diego--said reporters deserved to get their tickets fixed.

“How the hell are we supposed to do our job?” Remer said. “They (police) are supposed to make it easy to do our job . . . because we perform a valuable function. We perform the critical function that makes our society different from others. We are the free press that keeps the public informed.”

The Reader has written twice about the practice of reporters in San Diego seeking favors from the Police Department.

“I would have thought that the publicity we gave to this practice would have had some effect on the Police Department policy, if not the practice of individual reporters,” Mullin said. “But apparently I was wrong. I’m amazed.”

A decade ago, the Reader reported that “ticket-fixing” was a long, unquestioned practice among some Union and Tribune employees. And the weekly newspaper chastised reporters again in 1983 for routinely getting tickets canceled by police. In that story, the paper named Business Journal reporter Bill Ritter, now business editor of The Times, and Tribune reporter Frank Saldana for getting citations overturned.

Saldana later sued the Reader for libel, claiming that he went through established legal channels by having a police official dismiss the citation. A judge dismissed the lawsuit.

In a declaration filed last year when the Reader unsuccessfully sought to recover legal fees, Saldana stated that his editors at The Tribune were more concerned about “bad press” than about a reporter asking police to cancel a ticket. He said he was subjected to “jeers and teasing” by fellow reporters.

“They made comments to the effect that I thought I was ‘hot stuff,’ ” Saldana said in the declaration. “The entire experience was degrading and humiliating to me . . .”

Said Mullin: “If we hadn’t found (the lawsuit) so disgusting, it would have been laughable.”

Times staff writer Ralph Frammolino contributed to this story.