It’s like entering property without a search warrant, a federal court says
Detroit — Marking tires to enforce parking rules is like entering property without a search warrant, a federal court said Monday as it declared the practice unconstitutional in Michigan and three other states.
Alison Taylor had received more than a dozen $15 tickets for exceeding the two-hour parking limit in Saginaw. The city marks tires with chalk to keep track of how long a vehicle is parked. Her lawyer argued that a parking patrol officer violated the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court agreed.
The purpose of marking tires was to « raise revenue, » not to protect the public against a safety risk, the 6th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.
« The city does not demonstrate, in law or logic, that the need to deter drivers from exceeding the time permitted for parking — before they have even done so — is sufficient to justify a warrantless search under the community caretaker rationale, » the court said.
