A New Way to Spend at Mall--Pay Tickets

Aren’t malls the coolest? You can shop at the mall, eat at the mall, bank at the mall and, best of all, hang out at the mall. And starting next month, you’ll be able to pay off traffic tickets there.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, mall and Traffic Court officials marked the imminent opening of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza traffic ticket payment office--next to Sears.

The office, scheduled to open Jan. 16, will house computer operators who will be equipped to accept payment of fines, schedule court appointments and register violators in traffic school.

Fines can still be paid through the mail, said Municipal Presiding Judge Larry Fidler. But for those who prefer to do business in person, the office will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Baldwin Hills facility joins two other ticket payment centers run by the county. Fidler said an office in Westchester, which opened in December, 1985, and a West Valley branch, which opened in the spring, have been running smoothly. Each averages about 6,000 customers a month, he added.

Fidler said that according to customer surveys, the typical visitor to the offices waits fewer than five minutes for service.

Officials anticipate that the Baldwin Hills office will funnel away some of the people who crowd the downtown Traffic Courthouse, said Annette Waller, Traffic Court division chief. On an average day, payment of 2,500 fines are processed there, she said.

Mall shoppers passing by the ribbon-cutting ceremony predicted that the payment office will prove a welcome alternative to going downtown.

Andrea Kiongozi, 29, a construction company dispatcher who lives in Baldwin Hills, said driving downtown, parking and waiting for a court assignment were the biggest inconveniences she went through when she received a ticket recently.

“I went to the courthouse on my lunch hour, hoping it wouldn’t take too long,” Kiongozi said. “I wound up taking half a day off from work.”