Traffic cameras in New Orleans have been issuing tickets to parked cars for years and one resident is getting sick and tired of having to go down to City Hall to fight them. Donald Schulz says his pickup truck has received at least ten citations since 2011 while it was legally parked on the street. Schulz said that his sister and wife have also received a fine in the mail when they park on the street. Fines can range from $75 to $100.
In every citation he received, another vehicle was clearly visible, but the camera read his license plate, instead of the plate of the speeding vehicle.
Schulz says he was going down to fight the tickets so often, he would call the traffic violations office directly instead of going down to deal with the ticket in person.
“It’s a nuisance; I've had to take time out of my day several times and go down there and correct the situation,” Schulz told Fox News. “It got so bad that years ago I even had a [telephone] number of a person [in the traffic violations office] so that if I called them directly I didn’t have to go down there.”
He said he believes that other people in New Orleans are having the same problem.
“This problem probably exist all throughout the city,” Schulz said. “When I went down there in 2013, an elderly gentleman was in the same situation.”
A New Orleans police officer must sign off on each ticket before it is sent out. The city said the Shulz fine's have been dropped and they are working with the camera contractor to ensure that the technicians are properly trained in vehicle identification techniques.
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