Court Upholds Practice of Placing Parking Tickets on Windshield
We
previously reported on the 2012 case of Senne
v Village of Palatine, 695 F.3d 597 (7th Cir. 2012) where the
court held that placing a parking ticket on the windshield of a car is a
“disclosure” of private information within the meaning of the Driver’s Privacy
Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. 2721. The
court remanded the case to determine if private information on a ticket placed
face down on a windshield constituted a permissible use under the Act.
In
Senne v Village of Palatine, No.
13-3671 decided April 28, 2015 the 7th Circuit affirmed the
longstanding practice of placing parking tickets on vehicle windshields. The court said that even though the ticket
contained private information as defined under the Act, the disclosure of this
private information was allowed because the information is for use in
connection with an administrative proceeding and for use by a law enforcement
agency in carrying out its functions.
Both of these uses are permitted under the Act 18 U.S.C. 2721(b)(1) and
(b)(4).
Relying
on the deposition testimony of the Palatine Police Chief, the court identified
numerous lawful uses for the private information contained on the parking
ticket. Personal information such as
name, address, height and weight increases the likelihood that the person will
pay the ticket because the police know the person’s identity and address and
will have no difficulty locating the person.
The information also supports the Village policy of voiding tickets for
out of town visitors. The information
may also be used to help a person with limited English proficiency to
communicate with a police officer if subsequently stopped. The person can just show the police officer
the ticket to communicate identity.
Finally the information on the ticket enables drivers to correct errors
in the state motor vehicle records.
The
court concluded by saying that this limited disclosure of personal information
has not resulted in any known harm, such as stalking, identity theft or
invasion of privacy to the persons receiving a parking ticket.
Municipalities
may continue to issue windshield parking tickets based on this case, but should
continue to exercise caution when gathering or disclosing private information
subject to the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
Post Authored by Steve Mahrt, Ancel Glink
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