As LauraLaw reported this past summer, the City of Chicago’s red-light ticket program has been under investigation by the Chicago Tribune, and just this past week news broke that only 126 of the 3,285 tickets reviewed were nullified and will receive a cash reimbursement. “Since 2007, the City of Chicago has issued more than four million tickets,” which has brought in over $400 million dollars. The city did not offer any explanation for the sudden surges in tickets.
The City contracted a third private party, Grant Thornton LP, to review the tickets, which begs the question of why a private party reviewed the tickets as opposed to an impartial judge. What is even more unsettling is that the reviews “were done in private and focused on whether the videotape of the violations showed drivers broke the traffic law. The examiners did not consider whether the camera system was working properly, as an administrative law judge might do in a regular appeal.”
Unfortunately, the period for motorists to request review of their tickets was this past Thursday.
Chicagoans interviewed for a RedEye story raised concerns regarding the thousands of motorist who did not receive the chance to have the review board analyze their tickets. Not only did the independent review company find a minuscule number of camera violations, the city narrowed its review of red light tickets by only analyzing 12 intersections. It is also alleged that “in other cases, the city tickets where the cameras were performing as expected – potentially increasing the likelihood those tickets would be upheld on review.” In addition to limiting the number of intersections reviewed for wrongfully issued tickets, thousands of drivers were left out of the appeal process because of the timeframe mandated by the City for qualification for appeal.
The city’s focus on refunds failed to address “fundamental questions about the oversight, reliability and fairness of a program already mired in federal corruption investigation into allegation the city’s ex-vendor paid $2 million in bribes to get the business.”
A recent Chicago Tribune poll found that “92% of Chicagoan think the program either needs to be scrapped or reformed.”
Click here to check out the latest Chicago Tribune article on the Red Light Ticket Scandal.
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