‘Data Enthusiast’ Discovers Thousands of Overcharged City of Chicago Parking Tickets

Parking tickets in major cities across the United States are expensive, and Chicago is no different.

For areas outside of downtown Chicago locations, parking tickets are usually cheaper. But thousands of people may have been overcharged with more expensive City of Chicago parking tickets despite parking outside of downtown—essentially, bringing the cost of the fine up to what it would be if they had parked downtown instead.

Downtown, City of Chicago parking tickets for expired meters cost about $65 a pop. Outside of the central business district and throughout the rest of the city, the fine is supposed to be reduced to $50.

This shouldn’t be an ambiguous concept; indeed, the boundaries of the central business district are firm. And yet, new reports have shown that the city may have written thousands of tickets elsewhere in the city at the higher central business district rate.

Not long after the practice of chalking tires was declared unconstitutional in the neighboring Sixth Circuit, self-styled data enthusiast Matt Chapman was issued a ticket and had his vehicle towed for parking in a construction zone (though it turned out that it was not a legally registered construction zone). Chapman took it upon himself to look at data provided by ProPublica of Chicago fines over the last several years to search for other cases in which tickets may have been invalid. He found that from 2013 to 2018, the city had issued 30,001 parking tickets at the $65 rate even though the drivers had parked outside of the central business district. Altogether, this creates a total overcharge of $450,000.

Overcharging Has Been Going On for Decades

This data was pulled from just the last several years. But Chapman said it looks like this pattern of overcharging has gone on for far longer, and doesn’t give much sign that it will improve any time soon.

For instance, between January 2007 and November 2008, the central business district parking fine was $50, and outside that it was $30. During this period of time, the city issued 8,293 parking tickets outside the central business district at the $50 rate, leading to a potential overcharge of $165,000.

“It’s been going on basically as long as probably back since 1995 or so, and as far as I know it’s still going on,” Chapman told CBS 2. “I don’t see any indication that there’s any change; that Chicago is doing any research on whether or not this is still going on.”

When Chapman brought the parking fine overcharging issue to the attention of city officials, they claimed they were unaware of any overcharging. Now, the city has said it plans to dive into its parking fine data and do its own investigation—though this action is in part prompted by CBS 2 pushing further into the issue and asking questions.

If you were issued a City of Chicago parking ticket for an expired meter and you were outside of the Central business district, but were charged the downtown fine of $65, you may be able to join this class action lawsuit investigation.

Join a Free Chicago Parking Tickets Lawsuit Investigation

If you were issued a parking ticket in Chicago outside of the central business district and were charged $65, you may qualify to join this Chicago parking ticket class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.