Town doubles penalty for parked cars at mall, street
A Freehold, N.J., resident has concerns over technology used by police to issue tickets. Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, Neptune, N.J.John Phillips of Freehold received a ticket for parking an unregistered vehicle in a parking lot while he and his family were at the Freehold Raceway Mall. Police are using an automated license plate scanning equipment while trolling the parking lot. Wednesday, January 7, 2015 Freehold, NJ Doug Hood/Staff Photographer Gannett(Photo: Gannett)ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Freehold Township (N.J.) Police are trolling store parking lots for unregistered vehicles, issuing fines twice as much as getting pulled over for the same thing.Police officers use automated license plate readers attached to the trunks of their vehicles that connect to a computer system that will notify officers when it gets a hit — a warrant on an owner, a stolen vehicle or an unregistered vehicle.They also record the time, date and location of vehicles — and can scan thousands of plates an hour.As part of a special program that uses overtime dollars to enforce motor vehicle violations, officers are regularly patrolling the parking lots of Freehold Raceway Mall, Walmart and other shopping plazas seeking vehicles with violations. The license plate readers don't identify whether the vehicle's inspection is out of date.The fine for a parked unregistered vehicle — which means the individual did not renew the registration or register the vehicle in the first place — in Freehold Township is $100 plus a $24 court fee, which is more than twice the $54 penalty the state law carries. The state law can be enforced by local police, but only when the vehicle is being driven.The fine for a parked vehicle that has suspended registration — which the court can do for a number of reasons — is $175, which is far less than the state's $500 fine for the first offense. The $500 penalty would apply if an individual were pulled over while driving the vehicle."This is out of control," said Jon Phillips, a Freehold resident who had a ticket on his 2004 Toyota Highlander after spending 45 minutes in the mall earlier this month. "Who wants to live in a world where police drive up and down parking lots looking for people to ticket?"Based on the time stamp on the ticket, Phillips was in the mall about 15 minutes before he was issued a ticket. His vehicle's registration was 14 days late.He said with the holidays, he didn't have a chance to register his vehicle.OrdinanceIn 2010, Freehold Township passed an ordinance, known as 228-8, that allows police to issue tickets to parked vehicles if they're not registered, or if the registration is suspended.Jon Phillips, Freehold, N.J. resident Town Administrator Peter Valesi said the fine for parked unregistered vehicles is less than the state's because it wasn't logical to have a fine that's less than the cost of registering your car in the first place."People know you have to register your vehicle," Valesi said. "I would have to put up the counter argument that as long as you obey traffic laws and keep your vehicle registered and insured, you're not going to have a problem."The issue has spurred debate among residents about whether the special detail — which is done at least twice per week by officers working overtime — is a revenue grab."This is being disguised as something to protect us, but really it's meant for police to generate more revenue," Phillips said.From 2010 to 2014 — the first four years of the program — about 6,288 tickets were written for such violations.Freehold police wrote 3,380 tickets for unregistered vehicles under the state law during that same time period, according to data from the state's Administrative Office of Courts.If all of the tickets written over the four-year period were for parked unregistered vehicles, the total revenue from the tickets would be about $1.2 million. But that figure is an estimate because some might have been contested, and some might have been the $175 ticket for having a suspended registration.Freehold Township Police Lt. Lawrence Loos is in charge of the town's aggressive driver program, which includes the parking lot patrolling. He said after the police force was reduced in 2011, police had to find a way to enforce traffic violations because officers were often too busy on other calls.The solution was to designate more overtime dollars for extra traffic enforcement, he said.Between 2012 and 2014, the town spent about $480,000 on overtime for all motor vehicle enforcement details, according to the town's police overtime budget.Valesi said police got the plate readers around the same time the ordinance was passed. He said the program started soon afterward. with the advent of the readers.'Gateway' crimesValesi said an unregistered vehicle is usually a gateway for police to find other violations. People who don't register their cars typically don't have insurance, or if they have a suspended registration, chances are there are more reasons why they shouldn't be or aren't allowed to drive."I was doing this the other day myself and I came across a 228-8 violation and the occupants were smoking marijuana in the car," Loos said. "If you're going to smoke pot in a car at the Freehold Raceway Mall, make sure you do it in a registered vehicle."Loos said police patrolling have found stolen vehicles and individuals with arrest warrants with the license plate readers."These guys hit it hard every single day and they're out doing traffic enforcement to make sure the community is safe," Valesi said. "That, unfortunately is going to bring them head-to-head with unregistered vehicles. These are all issues that sound trivial, but they're tiny pieces of keeping people safe."Officers, however, are split on whether they agree with ticketing parked vehicles, Loos said."Some don't mind writing that ticket, but some like the interaction with people to know who they're writing the summons to," he said.Loos said they increase the patrol during the holidays. In November, 114 of the 228-8 tickets were issued, and that figure was 246 in December.Under the law, parking lots of malls, stores and shopping centers are considered quasi-public, so police have jurisdiction, Loos said. Police wouldn't be able to write a ticket for an unregistered vehicle in someone's driveway.Frank Lucia, the senior property manager at Freehold Raceway Mall, said they have no control over police ticketing in the parking lot and they're not involved in the process."It's not a matter of us being able to stop or encourage it," Lucia said. "They're entitled to do it."License plate readers, however, aren't new to the Freehold mall. The readers were installed over the entrances and exists to the mall as a counter terrorism measure in 2013, which raised concerns about privacy.The readers at the mall search law enforcement records to determine if the owner of a vehicle has any offenses, ranging from major crimes to unpaid parking tickets."Nobody likes getting a summons, that's for certain," Loos said. "If I didn't have to register my car and I wanted to get away with it, I would."Number of tickets 228-8 tickets issued during the holidaysNovember 2014: 114December 2014: 246228-8 tickets issued 2010-14: 6,288Estimated revenue: $1,257,600Estimated overtime dollars spent on overtime for all motor vehicle enforcement details2012: $180,0002013: $135,0002014: $165,000Total: $480,000FeesMoving unregistered vehicle: $54 plus court costParked unregistered vehicle: $100 plus court costSuspended registration (parked): $175 plus court costSuspended registration (moving): $500 for first offense plus court costSource for all: Freehold Township Police Department and town administrator's officeWithout a net, a look at death defying stuntsJan 15, 2015
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