Scofflaw-ism as a Growth Industry

When it comes to unpaid parking tickets in Los Angeles, scofflaw-ism has become a growth industry. The last five years have seen a quarter of a billion dollars of unpaid penalties and fines accumulate as tens of thousands of drivers ignored millions of tickets. About one-third of that debt may be uncollectable for a number of reasons, high among them is a disturbing lack of information in Department of Motor Vehicles records about where the legal owners of the vehicles can be found. That still leaves more than $162 million in debt that probably could be captured. In the last year, though, only $4 million in delinquent fees were in fact collected. The city’s failure to do better than that has meant an enormous revenue loss, the effect of which has been to deprive every resident of needed services--for improved policing, say, or more adequate street repairs.

Interestingly, as reporter Penelope McMillan found, high officials seemed largely unaware of the magnitude of the problem until The Times began asking questions. Over the last five years, since parking enforcement passed from the Police Department to the city Department of Transportation, parking-ticket revenues quintupled to $90 million. A most satisfying increase, no doubt. But also, perhaps, an inducement to complacency.

The problem, as Parking Administrator Bob Yates acknowledges, is that “the system has been a bit archaic for many years.” In truth, methods for tracking and collecting from violators--a job now contracted by the city to a private firm--are wholly inadequate. Part of the problem lies in Sacramento. The DMV is supposed to ensure payment of delinquent fines as a condition of vehicle registration renewal. But many vehicles owned by violators aren’t registered. In other cases, owners’ addresses prove to be out of date or even nonexistent.

With a little will and effort there are, of course, other ways to trace law breakers, just as there are ways to encourage greater compliance with parking laws. Right now, for example, the city makes no effort to prosecute serious violators, some of whom are responsible for more than 100 unpaid tickets. Yet it’s obvious that the costs of more tenaciously pursuing parking-ticket scofflaws would be recouped many times over. The flaws in the system now stand revealed. What are city officials going to do about fixing them?