New policy targets repeat offenders
and aims to reduce impact of
illegal overnight street parking

Brampton - Brampton City Council has amended the City's Traffic By-law that will broaden powers to remove illegally parked cars. This move paves the way for a 'three-strikes policy' that targets repeat offenders who park illegally on City streets and will help reduce the impact of illegal overnight street parking.

Presently, repeat offenders accept the accumulation of significant fines as the cost of overnight street parking. Apart from being parked illegally, these vehicles sometimes interfere with snow clearing, road maintenance, and obstruct the way of fire trucks or emergency vehicles.

However, under the amended by-law, a car that is ticketed for the third time in two months will be automatically towed away at the owner's expense.

"We looked at a number of different options to address the issue of illegal overnight street parking and chose the three-strikes approach because it is the best way to target repeat offenders and not unfairly penalize a vehicle owner with the occasional parking transgression," commented Mayor Susan Fennell. "We already know that high fines are not a deterrent for repeat offenders."

New technology is being used to track repeat offenders. City of Brampton parking enforcement officers use handheld computers to issue tickets to vehicles in violation of the Traffic By-law. The new software installed now tracks the tickets issued to specific vehicles. When a vehicle has been issued three parking tickets in a two-month period, an officer will be alerted that the ticket being issued makes the vehicle a repeat offender and it will be promptly towed away.

Prior to this amendment, the Traffic By-law only allowed the City to tow vehicles that were "interfering with the movement of traffic or the clearing of snow." Now parking enforcement officers can tow any vehicle parked in a manner which compromises public safety and/or constitutes a safety hazard including: protruding into traffic from a driveway; obstructing a private driveway; illegally parked and interfering with parade routes and street closures; obstructing fire routes; and illegal overnight street parking.