Council clarifies parking enforcement laws
Council approves legislation clarifying that parking tickets are civil, not criminal
- Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms
During an April 30 work session regarding the recent parking moratorium, councilwoman and Transportation Committee member, Keisha Lance Bottoms, asked an interesting question: Do PARKatlanta’s civilian officers have the legal authority to issue tickets that become a criminal matter when brought before a municipal court?
Yesterday, council unanimously approved legislation clarifying that parking enforcement citations are civil, not criminal, in nature and should be treated as such in court.
“Our city laws did not clearly state that these cases are in fact civil in nature, which created some difficulty for our city solicitor,” said Bottoms. A press release goes on to explain that parking citations will “not be recorded as a part of the criminal record of the person upon which such a penalty is imposed.”
Is it me, or is it kind of nuts that city code didn’t already make abundantly clear that parking tickets aren’t criminal?