San Diego to Ban Top Police Officials From Fixing Tickets

Hoping to prevent ticket-fixing abuses in the San Diego Police Department, City Manager John Lockwood is expected to impose new rules Thursday that would prohibit top police officers from investigating or dismissing tickets.

Police Chief Bill Kolender and his top aides are among those who will be prohibited from deciding which parking and moving citations are to be dismissed.

The rules are expected one month after Lockwood issued written reprimands to Kolender and Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen, in part because they had fixed tickets for friends and relatives. The San Diego County district attorney is conducting a review to determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted.

Lockwood began his inquiry after a monthlong investigation by The Times revealed that Kolender and his top aides dismissed hundreds of parking tickets and dozens of moving citations last year, many for family members, influential San Diegans and the news media. (Most of the parking tickets dismissed for media employees were for television and radio workers, although some employees of The Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union and Tribune also benefitted from the policy.)

In many cases, The Times found that the dismissals were based on fabricated excuses and that the officers who wrote the tickets were not consulted.

Lockwood said Tuesday that he hopes the new guidelines will create an “equitable procedure for everyone.”

Lockwood’s new rules will still grant some special parking privileges.

Television camera crews displaying media placards to be issued by the Police Department will be exempt from parking citations while “engaged in live broadcasting.” Newspaper and radio reporters no longer will be allowed to have their parking tickets routinely dismissed.

The guidelines also allow for parking ticket dismissals for government employees on “urgent official business.”

Under the old policy, 27 high-ranking administrators--from captains up to Kolender--were empowered to dismiss parking tickets. Commanders and above--12 people--had the authority to dismiss moving violations.

Under the new policy, responsibility for dismissing tickets for parking and moving violations will rest with the commander in charge of the traffic division. Kolender and his deputy chiefs, all of whom outrank the traffic commander, will not be allowed to dismiss the citations.

The rules also require that a log of dismissed traffic tickets be made available for inspection by the news media. The log is to show who received the ticket, who requested the dismissal and the reasons for granting the request.