Flashback: Many years ago I parked in the parking lot of a private office building. I got a ticket. :mad: The ticket was written by a private security officer but was the same as tickets written by the police on the county (maybe city, I don’t remember the jurisdiction) streets, with the full backing of county enforcement. I went to court and beat the ticket.
Fast forward to the present: Suppose that I have private property today where I post certain parking rules. (These have nothing to do with county ordinances regarding fire lanes or handicapped parking.) For example, reserved parking for a certain business. What do I need to do to be able to issue a parking ticket that is backed up by the county law enforcement system?
(In case you’re wondering, I got a ticket for parking along a curb where there was striping on the pavement–but nothing on the curb–indicating no parking. Other cars were parked legally along the curb, I think the striping was there to keep you from parking too close to the corner. I parked there during a snowfall and you couldn’t see the striping. I went to court prepared with photos, and the judge asked the rent-a-cop why he gave me the ticket. The guy said for a parking violation, but since he couldn’t tell the judge exactly what I had done wrong, the judge dismissed the case. I didn’t even need to say a word.)
Many schools have this kind of relationship with the local authorities. The California Institute of Technology (a private school) security personnel can write City of Pasadena parking citations on campus. Fines are payable to the city, and if you want to contest it you have to go through the city. Non-payment brings the same consequences as from a “standard” city parking ticket.
Caltech is willing to take the trade-off: they don’t get money from the tickets, but campus parking regulations do have teeth.
This sounds like just the sort of relationship you’re asking about. I guess the only real source of info I can think of is City Hall (or, in your case, the county government). Call 'em up and ask.
I read a recent article about a office manager type lady who put The Boot on cars that parked in her spaces and didn’t take it off until the offender paid up.
I’m surprised they would even bother with real or fake tickets. Every office building I have seen will just call a tow truck and have you towed away which is what they do if you park in the reserved spaces in our parking garage at work.
I have even seen this practice run as a quasi-business. Down at the border to cross into Tijuana, most folks park on the US side and walk in. There is an office building very close to the border which closes up at night and has signs posted about 10 feet off the ground saying it is private parking subject to towing (I mention the height because many people park there and don’t spot the sign well above them).
On some nights you will actually see one or two tow trucks hovering around that lot waiting for a sucker and as soon as they’re gone, they pull in and grab the car. To me, THAT should be illegal. I seriously doubt the company that owns the office building even knows or cares about people parking there at night. I suspect their signs are there to guarantee they have parking during the work day.
Shopping centers are private property, but they will usually have yellow-stripped areas at the curbs for fire trucks. They have to have signs posted, but a police officer can write you a ticket if so inclined. I saw happen recently. The man parked in the fire lane while waiting for his friend to run into a store on a quick errand. Unfortunately, the friend wasn’t fast enough and the man got a $100 ticket for parking in said lane.
It may well be illegal. The posted sign must be in a place that reasonably could be seen. Is a sign 10 feet above the round in a place that can reasonably be seen? In the daytime, probably Yes, but not at night.
If that were the case, they would qualify the no parking to certain times of the day.
Many colleges and universities have agreements with the local police regarding parking violations. In addition, if you own a parking area, such as in a grocery store lot, you can arrange for the police to have jurisdiction over it. Hence, the signs, “Police have jurisdiction, etc.” If not, you can call the police and have them arrange for the vehicle to be towed, but at your own risk. The police will do so, but they take no responsibility for improper towing.
Two examples of enforced parking violations on private property:
Handicapped Parking - A friend found this out the hard way. A parking garage had two handicapped reserved spaces next to the elevator lobby. He parked in on “for just a minute” (probably closer to an hour). When he returned to his car, he had a $100 ticket issued by a county police officer.
I casually asked an attendant about it later, and he said that when they see handicapped space offenders, they call the local police, who then issue a ticket. It’s because the spaces are legally mandated (parking areas of a certain size need to have x percent reserved) that the police are obligated to enforce compliance. They don’t regularly patrol inside parking garages, but if they get a complaint, they’ll respond and ticket.
Fire Zones - I myself found this out the hard way. I was delivering a package to an office building, and would’ve been out in 3 minutes max. I figured that if the building security had a problem with this, it’d still take about 10 minutes for a cop or a tow truck to arrive. How wrong I was!
Seems that tow companies regularly have trucks waiting out of plain sight monitoring fire zones of office buildings. As soon as I was out of sight, this tow truck swooped in and towed my car away. For an $85 “ransom” (and a @!#?@! walk across town) I got it back.
Their argument is that it was akin to a citizen’s arrest, and that they were promoting public safety by keeping the fire zones clear. Of course, casually driving up to me before I leave my car and telling me that I’m in violation if I leave my vehicle would’ve served the same purpose, except for their “finders fee”.
Oh, and slightly related topic: firemen can give out tickets too. Once a set of power wires near my office were knocked down. Fire and police units were sent out to redirect traffic and help the utility workers get the lines working again. As a precaution, a fire truck stationed itself in the private cul-de-sac in the middle of our 4-office building complex. But when he came in, there were several cars parked in the fire zones, making it damn near impossible for the truck to maneuver. One of the firemen got out a ticket pad and start writing up tickets. I asked him about it, and he said something similar about public safety as #2 above. Plus, he said, tow trucks were on the way since there was a potential emergency and they couldn’t maneuver.
A call to the municipality/county/region by-law enforcement office will tell you what you need to know.
My father owns his office building and has a parking lot with room for 7-8 cars. Typically he only has 2-3 used for his business. He asked the by-law enforcement guys who told him that he needed x-number of ‘Authorized Parking Only’ signs for the lot and where to post them. They told him where to order them and the by-law number to be indicated on the bottom of the sign.
Now that he has them posted, if someone uses his lot that has not received prior approval he can call the city by-law enforcement officers to enforce the signs and ticket or tow. The catch is that he has to be there (as the owner of record) to inform the officer of the cars to ticket. The tickets are the same as you would get on a public thoroughfare.
They probably post the signs to keep their parking lot clean.
We had a promoter lease a vacant area near work for concerts. People attending the concerts would use our company parking lot. No problem. After the concert it is covered in bottles, cups and other trash. We put up no parking signs. If no one parks there, it stays clean.
There are no quotes–it was the same ticket as if you had parked in a “no parking” zone on a public street, with the same consequences for non-payment. It was a private party but they were somehow authorized to issue a real, gen-yoo-wine ticket. County gets the cash. It’s that authorization I want to get.
Interesting information from all the Dopers who responded. Kinda reminded me of something that happened many moons ago when I was in graduate school. This was at Iowa State University (thus state property), but any tickets given out were payable to the university (they would hold final grades hostage until you coughed up the bucks). Anyway, the parking lot I was authorized to park in was going to have more faculty spaces added…and therefore many graduate student parking places had to be sacrificed to accomplish this. It was announced in the student newspaper, along with day and time they would start the change. However, someone at the university decided in all his/her wisdom to start the transition a day early… without notice! As the “Graduate Student Parking Only” signs were removed and the “Faculty Parking Only” signs were attached in their place, a university cop was following right behind, giving out tickets to the graduate student cars which were suddenly illegally parked! Those of us who decided to fight it won, while those sad saps who had never had assertiveness training paid up and nobody told them otherwise! Pathetic bit of university politics, I must say!
