Stolen cars still collect tickets and city can't do anything about it

Stolen cars still collect tickets and city can't do anything about it

By Amanda Patterson

  Cecil Adjety was surprised to find that his car had been stolen. But when he received a notice that his stolen car had accumulated $700 in unpaid parking tickets he was shocked.
  Adjety, a Somerville resident, stumbled into a communication gap between the Somerville police and the Traffic and Parking departments. Each group documents activity related to stolen cars and accumulated tickets, but a lack of interdepartmental communication forestalls any hope of unearthing overlapping cases.

  In July, a month after he reported his 1999 Jetta stolen, Adjety received an overdue payment notice and was sent on a runaround to rectify the violations.
  Adjety said Somerville Traffic and Parking told him to come back later because his tickets weren’t in the system.
  Nothing happened.
  Then they took his papers and said that they would call him.
  Again, nothing happened, said Adjety.
  Then Adjety got a call from the Somerville Police. After 5 tickets and no response from the owner in 90 days, his car was officially a scofflaw offender and had accrued enough tickets to be towed.     Although the ticket charges were eventually reversed, Adjety’s insurance company had replaced the car by that time it was recovered.
   If the Traffic and Parking department collaborated with the police and used available technology to track stolen cars and amassing tickets, drawn out and expensive ordeals could be prevented, said Adjety.
   “I’m sure it’s possible,” said James Halloran, the man who runs Somerville’s school, city, police and fire databases. He is not, however, involved in the Traffic and Parking database. All ticketing, billing, payments, computer maintenance and database work are contracted to Affiliated Computer Services. The handheld computers that Parking Control Officers carry transmit all information regarding tickets to the main ACS database, said former mayoral spokesman Mark Horan.
    A parking office window attendant, who declined to be identified, has worked there for less than a year and has seen two or three cases like Adjety’s.
   Another parking control officer confirmed that his computer would not inform him if he ticketed a stolen car.
   “That’s a good idea, though,” he said.
    Deciding whether a car is stolen or parked carelessly can be difficult, because most stolen cars these days aren’t burglarized, said William Tauro, of Pat’s Towing.
    “The days when people stole cars for parts are over, everything is too specific now,” Tauro said.   “Nine times out of ten cars are stolen because somebody wanted a ride.”
    Cases like Adjety’s fall through the cracks between departments, so neither the police nor the traffic control officers know exactly how often in happens. Pat’s is always the intermediary between Traffic and Parking and the police. The two city departments have no direct contact, or knowledge of each other’s connection to a particular car. The log at Pat’s Towing could tell the story, but according to Tauro, information can only be accessed for specific vehicles, and only with the police claim check number in hand.   
    Any car reported stolen in the United States will be put on a federal list received by every police department in the country, according to Officer Bob Favuzza of the Massachusetts State Police.
Information about stolen cars is public, said Frank Bates, crime statistician for the Somerville police. “You could read it in the paper every week,” he said, adding that connecting the databases would be useful.
   “It would help everybody involved. It would help the police, the people whose cars are stolen. It would probably help insurance companies, too,” Bates said.
   Insurance companies have to replace a stolen car after thirty days, according to John M. Connolly, of Wedgewood Crane and Connolly Insurance in Davis Square. It would be a valuable service if it would help get cars returned to their owners faster, he said. But it is unclear how much it would cost the city to make the change.
    It isn’t a big problem, said Warsh, and currently changing the system is an expense the city can’t afford. 

Comments

[Of Course]

Why can't the City afford it? It just collected over $300,000 for a 5" snow emergency. I hear it might rain on Christmas Day. Why not invest in a snow gun and make another 5" on snow and declare another snow emergency.

All you have to do is brainstorm and you can come up with some inventive revenues.

[jml]

Maybe Mr. Tauro of Pat's Towing should be appointed police chief. Then there will be communication. Maybe???

[Get The Facts]

Here we go again. Of Course do you just have a problem with telling the truth?? Read Mr. Hasset's article again. It's $200.000!! Ok, hit me with - "that's not the point. The point is the amount of tickets an revenue and.. blah blah bull $%^%." I thought you were going to do your "own research" from now on? It doesn't get any easier than the article below the one you are posting to....

[Of Course]

Get The Facts, your right. I did get my facts mixed up. I said a 5" storm when the total I wrote was for the enitre year.

I guess I can get put into the corner...

[Of Course]

I guess someone else likes to be known as "Of Course". The posting above is not mine but that of an imposter.

Oh well, I guess I have a fan club of "Wanna B's". Only Jamie knows for sure.

[nate]

My car was stlen and soon after my cell phone was disconnected. I called and informed police, and left numerous numbers for them to call in case of its recovery. My car has been found, but i was not notified until 7 days after it had been recovered, on a fri at around 6:00 pm. So when I went to pick my car up on Sat. I had to spend over 3 hours trying to find out if they had my car and where it was at. After hours of pointlesss conversations the police finally found where my car was located and I was on my way. It turns out the police had the car towed so that they could search it and check for finger prints. My car had been sitting at a local wrecker service for over a week with the windows rolled down in the rain. Since, I had not yet received the tittle for the car (bought it from my brother) and didn't have insurance. I now have to come up with the money to get my car back from the police/wrecker service. $100.00 for towing, $15 per day x 9 days-accounts till mon. $40.00-$60.00 to get towed from wrecker service to my house. And only then will i have to pay to get a key made. WOW. My car was stolen by a theif and now I can't afford to get it back from the cops/wrecker service.

Is there something wrong with this?