CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Clerk of Courts launched a new program to collect old parking fines Wednesday.
Vehicles with five or more unpaid parking tickets are put on a list and are eligible to be towed.
Now, when a ticket officer issues a new parking ticket, their handheld device will alert them to whether the vehicle has five or more unpaid tickets. The device will then print out a warning notice to alert the driver that their vehicle is eligible to be towed. The notice also explains how drivers can pay unpaid fines or initiate a payment plan.
"So not only will that vehicle get the ticket, but it will also get the notice saying you are tow eligible," said Obie Shelton, Director of Communications, Cleveland Municipal Clerk of Courts.
"Hopefully, this will alert people that, you know, 'I could get towed,'" he said.
Shelton said the city is owed approximately $50 million in unpaid parking fines dating back to 2000.
He said 181 vehicles were towed over unpaid parking tickets last year, and the city collected $111,000.
He said the city is in the process of upgrading to parking meters that accept electronic payments, which is expected to reduce the number of parking tickets issued in the future.
