Drivers Ticketed For Too Many City Stickers
Most Chicago drivers know they can be issued a parking ticket for not having a current Chicago city vehicle sticker on their car’s windshield.
But it seems some Chicago police officers are writing tickets to drivers for having expired city stickers despite having purchased a 2011 city sticker.
According to reports from 33rd Ward Alderman Richard Mell’s office, there’s been a rash of expensive $120 parking tickets issued up in his Northside ward because drivers didn’t remove city stickers from previous years. According to some drivers, the tickets are not being issued by Parking Enforcement Aides but by the CPD.
“I’ve just read an e-mail from a constituent that informs me that tickets
are being issued in our ward (and other places in the city) for having old city stickers affixed to your windshield,” said Mell in an email to constituents. “This is something that even I was not aware of.”
While the municipal code does instruct drivers that the city sticker should be placed in the lower right corner of the windshield, it does not provide exact measurements. Nor does the municipal code say anything about removing city stickers from previous years.
“What appears to be the primary issue is not merely that there was an expired city sticker in addition to the current one, but also that we put the current city sticker above the expired one and therefore the city sticker was not sufficiently in the lower right hand corner for whomever was writing tickets that day,” says Elly who emailed us from Mell’s ward. “So it seems that someone was having a bad day, or they’ve received instructions to be OCD about ticketing in order to raise revenue.”
The Chicago City Clerk’s office, which is responsible for issuing city stickers to drivers, also does its own enforcement of city sticker violations. However, according to City Clerk spokesperson Kristine Williams, their enforcement people don’t care if old stickers are on the windshield.
“Our enforcement people are just looking for the city sticker to be displayed,” says Williams. “Our biggest concern is that the city sticker is on the windshield.”
While Williams concurs the municipal code is not minutely specific when it comes to exactly where the city sticker should be placed on the lower right of the windshield she advises drivers to remove expired city stickers.
“We always encourage people to remove last year’s city stickers,” says Williams.
My local ticket lady, told me that Parking Enforcement Aides were told not to issue citations as long as the current sticker is affixed to the window and visible. The one exception she did mention is that it cannot be in the up tinted area of the windshield.
What are drivers supposed to do if they get a ticket for the sticker not being sufficiently in the lower right hand corner? It’s not possible to move a city sticker once it has been glued to the window. Are they just at risk of getting ticket after ticket until next year?
Kelly…
Yes.
Lowest area of windshield, Farthest from the drivers side.
No Sticker Other than Current Year Allowed Regardless of Vehicle Registration (improper display of Expired sticker = out of state plate enforcement allowed).
I’ll ticket you all day for stupid placement of the sticker.
Kelly,
You could do 1 of 2 things. First you could replace the sticker, I believe the fee is $10. Or you could print out this page and highlight the section where Kristie Williams of the City Clerk talks about the muni code and send in a photo of your sticker. Total cost 2-3 dollars. Your choice.
Will CPD cite cars with no sticker even if they are from a suburb which does not issue them?
Ticket Doctor:
No. You can’t get a ticket if your car is registered to a place that does not issue them and you happen to be in an area that does.
If CPD is interpreting its ‘protect and serve’ mandate more as harrass and annoy, then simply respond in kind. Think of some ways that would unambiguously communicate your disgust to a petulent three-year-old drunk on power. Personally, I would shit in a ziplock bag, place my ticket in there with it, and mail that to the issuing officer at their precinct. Really, what else can you do with a recalcitrant bureaucracy no longer beholden to the constituency its supposed to serve?
Six years ago my nephew affixed his new sticker above a few expired ones, then decided to scrape off the old. He was then ticketed relentlessly by cops in his Portage Park neighborhood for the new sticker being too high on the windshield.
When he finally went to court after several months of not dealing with the tickets, more than $500 worth of tickets were considered too old to contest. So even though he had a valid sticker and was trying to do the right thing by scraping off the old, he was nothing more than easy prey to the city’s predatory revenue practices.
The woman at my currency exchange said in all her decades she had never seen such harassment for such a non-offense. I guess she will see a lot more of it now.
There is not logical explanation for this. This is ridiculous! They should not be allowed to do that. Another thing, why do you get a $50.00 ticket for not having a License plate on the front of your car?? These small violations against tax-paying citizens are unfair and should be abolished.
Doc…..if the Plate/VIN check comes back to a City Resident…it doesn’t matter where the vehicle is registered.
Its all about the Residences of the Vehicles Owner.
Its called a Confidential VIN Check…….
We can get your Lease info, your ID or DL info….everything
I’m sorry Drew, but that simply cannot be the case or perhaps you are calling your co-workers liars. I have taken the time to speak to several different ticket writers and they all have said the same thing. When they do a plate check, the only information they are given is city or suburb, vehicle type and plate expiration.
With all due respect to your knowledge on the subject Drew, are you saying a license plate registration check reveals where the vehicle driver resides? Does this mean a vehicle registered to a suburban fleet who’s address lists a suburban address may get a ticket for not having a Chicago vehicle sticker if the driver of that vehicle happens to live in the city? I just want to be clear on this point.
Just a tip for all interested drivers.
Even though the municipal code is not specific on old vs. new city stickers, etc., the best advice is always to remove old city stickers from your windshield so there’s no possibility of confusion. We have given this advice before.
This is also good advice if you have recently moved out of the city and still have last year’s city sticker and continue to drive back into the city for work, play, etc.
Even though you may now live in Oak Park, if you’re on a Chicago street with last year’s Chicago city sticker, most ticket writers assume you did not buy THIS year’s city sticker. So, in this case, remove last years city sticker and try to get a city sticker from your town to further keep the ticket writers off your bumper.
Doc….I’m not speaking for PEA’s
I’m talking about the information we can access through a Police Data Terminal via the VIN and Plate number.
Address of Registered Owner….Sec State background check for state id and DL address of record.
PEA’s don’t have that level of clearance.
And to put it plainly…the Code specifically states that Any Vehicle that remains/is kept/is garage/is stored within the City Limits for over 30 days Must have a City Sticker. PEA’s can’t track cars daily. The CPD can.
[...] NBC 5 and a myriad of other TV stations covered the story about police officers writing tickets for vehicles with old city stickers on their windshields. [...]