Why Milwaukee’s Parking Enforcement System Might Be Unconstitutional

When it comes to parking enforcement, the City of Milwaukee has a problem. Local media have concluded from interviews and public records that the City issues parking tickets without paying close attention to whether they are warranted. In 2011 alone, the City reportedly canceled over 38,000 parking tickets, often because they were plainly unjustified. Nearly 8,000 tickets, for example, were issued for “expired” parking meters that in fact had not expired. Given personal experience, I have little doubt that these figures are accurate.

The extremely high number of unwarranted tickets is not an accident. Instead, it appears to be the result of a policy to issue tickets indiscriminately for the singular purpose of revenue enhancement. The City’s manager for parking enforcement practically admits as much; he recently told a local news station that the policy “is to issue the citation and straighten it out later.” Media coverage suggests that the City implements this policy through an informal quota system: Several employees of the Department of Public Works have revealed that supervisors expect enforcement personnel to issue certain numbers of tickets per shift for specified areas, and that supervisors punish those who fail to meet quotas by handing out undesirable shift hours. In other words, enforcement personnel are under the gun; unless they want to work at 3:00 in the morning, they have to issue bushels of tickets. Because this system appears to give credit even for unjustified citations, there is little incentive for personnel to make sure that they issue citations only when deserved. So the high error rate is no surprise. The effect is to impose upon thousands of law-abiding residents the burden of either paying a fine or establishing the absence of a violation. For many, the hassle is worse than the dollar value of the fine.

This policy is not only burdensome; it may be unconstitutional. Settled legal doctrine holds that the government violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause if it intentionally and without rational basis treats an individual differently from others who are similarly situated. This doctrine reflects the purpose of the Clause, which is “to secure every person within [a] State’s jurisdiction against intentional and arbitrary discrimination, whether occasioned by express terms of a statute or by its improper execution through duly constituted agents.”

There is a good argument that the City of Milwaukee is violating the Equal Protection Clause. Acting through its parking enforcement personnel, the City treats its residents differently by issuing parking tickets to some but not others. To the extent that the tickets are warranted, the differential treatment is itself warranted. But put aside all residents who violate parking laws and thus deserve citations. Even without them, there is differential treatment among a group of similarly situated individuals who are perfectly compliant with all parking laws: the high error rates show that the City issues tickets to some and not others. Moreover, the difference in treatment has no rational basis—within the population of compliant residents, there is no material characteristic that distinguishes the ticket-free and ticket-receiving individuals. If enforcement personnel issue a ticket simply to satisfy a quota, it is not because of anything the recipient did; it is because her car just happened to be there. And while revenue collection is undoubtedly a legitimate governmental interest, the Constitution does not permit the pursuit of legitimate interests through illegal means. Imposing fines on law-abiding residents is contrary to the Traffic Code, which authorizes fines only against residents who violate its provisions.

It is hard to say at this point whether the differential treatment is intentional. In part, this is because the law is unclear on the type of intent that gives rise to a constitutional violation. It is not clear, for example, whether a violation requires that enforcement personnel simply intended to issue the tickets, perhaps in reckless disregard for whether they were deserved; or intended to issue the tickets while knowing that they were undeserved; or instead intended to issue the tickets because of some non-material characteristic of the recipient. The Seventh Circuit has not provided much guidance. In part, it is also difficult to say whether the differential treatment is intentional because a lot of facts remain unknown. We don’t know, for example, precisely how supervisors train and instruct enforcement personnel, or how frequently personnel issue tickets while knowing they are undeserved. Perhaps the most that can be said at this point is that, given the large number of cancelled tickets, one should not be surprised if enforcement personnel have at least on occasion intentionally issued tickets to law-abiding residents simply to satisfy the informal quotas.

If the Equal Protection Clause seems to be an implausible basis for concern, consider this: Just six months ago, the Seventh Circuit validated a virtually identical argument in a lawsuit against the City of Chicago. After receiving a series of baseless parking tickets, a Chicago resident sued the City on the ground that the issuance of the tickets against him and not other residents violated the Equal Protection Clause. The district court dismissed the claim, but the Seventh Circuit reversed. Explaining that a claim “can be brought based on allegations of the irrational . . . application of law enforcement powers,” the court concluded that the issuance of the tickets was “not a legitimate exercise of discretion” and lacked a rational and proper purpose. A settlement conference is scheduled for September.

It is time for Milwaukee to reform its approach to parking enforcement. The City has an interest in honoring the 14th Amendment. It has an interest in protecting its law-abiding residents against arbitrary and unjustified enforcement measures. And it has an interest in avoiding the costs of litigation that the status quo might produce.

This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. Matt Mitten

    One of my most personally satisfying legal victories in recent years was convincing a magistrate that my fiance’s ticket for parking on a public street after 2am should be dismissed because there was no sign providing notice that proper authorization from the Milwaukee police department was required to do so. Although there are rather small signs on the interstate so stating, I successfully argued that they do not constitute adequate notice to motorists paying proper attention to the road ahead and traffic signs. Score one for the 14 Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which of course requires the government to provide appropriate notice of prohibited conduct before imposing a sanction depriving a citizen of property in the form of a fine!

  2. Nick Zales

    Good article! The City ought to be ashamed of itself for what it is doing. And it’s not the only way the City has been violating people’s rights to raise revenue. I have long contended the city over-assesses real property to inflate its coffers.

  3. David Young

    There are any number of vendors that can provide very affordable solutions to this problem. There are devices designed to issue printed citations that can also take pictures of the violation and print one of the pictures right on the violation. It will be very unlikely for a judge to dismiss a citation that shows a picture of the actual violation. More importantly, it is even more unlikely that the violation is disputed in the first place. Oh the wonders of technology!

  4. Matthew Kiefer

    There is no real reason to ticket people for night parking (violations). Other than snow removal I see nothing to validate this law. In fact this law pits people against each other and limits the ability of emergency services to do their jobs. The night parking law is a complete revenue scam and needs to be revoked.

  5. John Carter

    The system appears to give credit even for unjustified citations,there is little incentive for personnel to make sure that they issue citations only when deserved.

  6. Jeffy Segal

    Parking violations are everywhere now. People can do whatever comes to their mind without actually empathizing. Milwaukee should reconsider the enforcement.

  7. Thomas Roberts

    Unconstitutional conduct by an abusive parking violations bureau, perhaps the director of parking violations needs to be schooled in the law??? Or perhaps the city attorney needs to be taught a lesson….

  8. Thomas Roberts

    I urge this group to consider a class action lawsuit. With the class to be certified to be victims of wrongfully issued citations and all those who received “no overnight” parking tickets when there is inadequate notice.

    Class action lawsuit would provide for attorney fees and compensation to the class members.

  9. Brian Salgado

    I KNEW I should have contested my parking ticket. I was cited for parking within four feet of a driveway just north of downtown. There was nothing resembling signage indicating this was a violation of any sort. (I also just relocated from Illinois, so a lawyer pal of mine said ignorance is not an excuse.)

  10. Eric Mango

    I live in Illinois and haven’t been in Milwaukee for over 10 years. Imagine the surprise when I received a demand from Milwaukee Parking violations for a ticket issued in 2018 referencing my Illinois license plate number. When I called they said it was a “Red Honda” (that’s not my car). No picture, no VIN, nothing . . . . They won’t accept emails to contest tickets, and there’s no overnight mail address. There’s only a P.O. Box. They make you send in a copy of your registration. I blacked out the VIN to make sure they didn’t record and misuse it in the future. I sent it priority mail with tracking to them and the collections company they farm out to.

    I’m upset about the fraudulent ticket, the misuse of my state’s information, the harassment, my time wasted, and my credit threatened. That’s not to mention we’re in the middle of buying a home in which to raise our child — what if that gets messed up or we get a higher rate?

    Milwaukee needs to be held publicly and monetarily liable for this unregulated and unaccountable enterprise.

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