City Offering Amnesty For Unpaid Tickets

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 1, 2008 8:25PM

For the first time in six years, the City of Chicago is offering drivers an amnesty period to take care of old parking tickets before the boot threshold is lowered. The period runs from January 1 until February 14 during which tickets issued before January 1, 2007 can be paid off with 50 percent off the penalty fees. After the deadline, the threshold for booting drops from three unpaid tickets older than one year to two tickets. Revenue Director Bea Reyna-Hickey said, “I would encourage you to take advantage of this offer…We have not done one since 2002. Before that, there was one in the ‘80s. So it’s not something we want to do as a regular practice...It’s an opportunity for you to come into compliance [and] save a little money. I wish it could be more. But some people could really benefit from the waiver of those additional fees out there on their record.” As the number of tickets is down, Reyna-Hickey admitted, "Police [ticketing] has decreased…Clearly, the police have a lot of other more important things to tend to." In 2002, the last time an amnesty period was declared, the city brought in $8.2 million and took care of 242,000 unpaid tickets.