The tow list was 13,375 vehicles long last Monday. This Monday that number dropped to 4,499. The city last Wednesday made the change from two to three citations.
Three Dayton residents have filed suit over the camera enforcement and towing of vehicles, and asked that their suit be a class action to include all those ticketed and towed. The plaintiffs claim the towing of their vehicles was illegal and that more than 50,000 people are affected by the towing.
Through the first three months of the year, the city collected $800,000 in fines from the parking, and red light and speed camera citations.
In April, when the city started towing, the Municipal Court collected almost $605,000 in red light and speed camera fines, and another $70,000 in parking tickets, said Russ Joseph, deputy clerk of courts. The city gets $55 of the $85 camera citations; the other $30 goes to Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., which runs the camera system. The city cleared $422,500 on camera fines and $70,000 in parking fines for a total of $492,500 for the month.
“April was the high water mark,” Joseph said. “That was when the towing got all the publicity, and people got concerned about their car being towed.”
Joseph said collections in May are down by 20 percent from April. He expects the collections to continue to decline. Especially now that the tow list has been changed.
The suit filed May 17 claims the plaintiffs were notified by mail but there is no record that the mail was received. It also claims the city’s ordinance fails to have adequate hearings on the citations; that there is inadequate evidence that the vehicle owners were driving the vehicle; that the towing illegally deprived them of their property and the ordinance is unconstitutionally overbroad.
The City Commission last week amended the towing ordinance to include an appeals process for the towing of a vehicle.
“The amending of the towing ordinance has done nothing to correct the constitutional harms caused by the city’s towing ordinance,” said Michael Dyer, lawyer for the plaintiffs. “Although we appreciate the city’s attempt to reconcile the grave injustice they have imparted upon the citizens of Dayton, the practice ... continues to trample over the constitutional rights guaranteed to all citizens.”
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