Chalking Tires To Monitor Parking Times Ruled Unconstitutional
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Chalking tires is an old school way of tracking parked cars, but a federal appeals court ruled municipalities must lose the chalk.
The ruling is leaving local towns in legal limbo, reports CBS2's Lisa Rozner.
With his trusty chalk stick in hand, traffic agent Jim Brennen traversed the village of Irvington, N.Y., tracking tires of parked cars.
"I chalked it at 8:30, I came back at 12:30," he said. "The chalk marks are still on it, so I wrote it for a two hour violation."
Brennen is violating the Constitution, if you go by a ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of appeals this week.
A three-judge panel agreed with attorney Phillip Ellison in Saginaw, Mich., who argued that marking tires is similar to police secretly putting a GPS on a vehicle without a proper warrant.
That's a violation of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches.
"The idea of taking a chalk stick and swiping a tire to use as a tool to determine how long someone's been in a particular spot is now unconstitutional as a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights," said Ellison.
"I was shocked," said Brennen.
"I'm not as paranoid," said Irvington resident Nita Glickberg. "I just hope I don't forget to move my car and get a ticket."
"I don't mind at all, I think it's chalk wipes off very easily so it's not a problem," said Eric Millar of Dobbs Ferry.
The court, which covers four Midwest states, ruled that now a warrant is needed because the purpose of marking tires is "to raise revenue" and not for public safety.
But some say that argument is absurd.
"Everybody who owns a cell phone is being illegally searched and their privacy is violated everyday every place they walk through," said business owner Ken Kissel of Live Wire Security.
Kissel says the chalking keeps free spots open for customers.
"Somebody can run in run out and not have to worry about getting a ticket for just being parked for five minutes, like you do with a lot of other towns that have parking meters," he said.
After consulting with legal counsel in the City of Englewood, N.J., officials have decided to suspend tire marking.
Brennen's been directed to keep on chalking like he's been doing the last 19 years.
In the meantime, the village is considering more high tech options.
The Michigan case was prompted by a woman who received more than a dozen 15-dollar parking tickets in three years.
A class-action lawsuit could be next.
