Mass car towing near Cliff Bells / Foxtown

Ravine · January-17-12, 09:53 AM

I understood the concept, cramerro, but thanks for walking me through it.

So, a meter-person who is going to the trouble to run the plate [[they don't just write out tickets for expired parking when full-scale boot & tow targets are as readily available as they are) will fail to notice that the plate isn't even valid? Or, upon noticing that, will choose to ignore it and just settle for writing out a ticket?

Good Luck with that.

**Danny** · January-17-12, 09:58 AM

When the park your car in a "NO PARKING ZONE" It means NO PARKING. Wait til you get a ticket, booted or towed and then you all understand its dogmatic laws.

**Zacha341** · January-17-12, 10:01 AM

They're running the plates so as to get a 'flag' which tells them if you are over the ticket quota [[your plate or someone elses) which activates the call to the boot van, followed by the tow truck along with the original expired plate ticket and additional towing, daily storage fees etc.

I know all of this cause I was taking a family member to med center often for treatments and saw it happen and talked to people experiencing it. They even put a 'boot' sticker car on my car once, but no 'boot' as I did NOT owe tickets! When I called about it was 'rudely' told that it was a mistake and to basically get off the phone since I did not actually receive a boot!

Great! I bet a few cars are booted by accident! I had a time peeling off the boot sticker from off my window. Good times!

Originally Posted by Ravine

I understood the concept, cramerro, but thanks for walking me through it.

So, a meter-person who is going to the trouble to run the plate [[they're not going to just write out a ticket for expired parking when a full-scale boot & tow is potentially at hand) will fail to notice that the plate isn't even valid? Or, upon noticing that, will choose to ignore it and just settle for writing out a ticket?

Good Luck with that.

**kryptonite** · January-17-12, 02:42 PM

Maybe it's as simple as this, to address thefts of and from vehicles.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...street-parking

**Detroitkid** · January-17-12, 04:47 PM

Well sort of... Only in the D

A spate of 44 car break-ins in a two-block radius of downtown Detroit — from Woodward Avenue to the I-75 Service Drive and from the Service Drive to Adams Street — prompted Detroit police Cmdr. Kenny Williams of the Central District to take drastic measures.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...rs-lot-in-life

**Detroitnerd** · January-17-12, 05:01 PM

It's weird to see this idiotic shitfest given "fair" treatment like that. Classy, but they deserved tougher treatment this time.

**thredmission** · January-17-12, 05:10 PM

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20120117/STAFFBLOG06/120119898/tow-vs-stole-in-cash-strapped-detroit-thats-the-drivers-lot-in-life

"Williams said he towed 20 cars that Thursday night — a dose of tough love. But it worked.

Williams said that in that same two-block radius where 44 cars were stolen or broken into the previous weekend, zero were broken into this past Friday Saturday and Sunday.

"It's ironic to me that 44 cars were broken into the weekend before and we heard not a word about it," Williams said. "Now last week I towed 20 cars, and you would have thought it was D-Day."

Williams said the mass towing was about stopping crime rather than reacting to it."

Duh it worked you idiot. You had the street full of patrol cars and tow trucks. That is reacting to the crime, not stopping it. Stopping it is a long term solution that changes the criminals behavior.

Also, where is he getting all these detailed statistics like lot vs street crime? I'm also not seeing this 44 crime spike this he references here as well, and if they are dumb enough not to realize the shorter days correlate with increase crime I don't see any logical solution come from DPD anytime soon.

Occurrence · January-17-12, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

I understood the concept, cramerro, but thanks for walking me through it.

So, a meter-person who is going to the trouble to run the plate [[they don't just write out tickets for expired parking when full-scale boot & tow targets are as readily available as they are) will fail to notice that the plate isn't even valid? Or, upon noticing that, will choose to ignore it and just settle for writing out a ticket?

Good Luck with that.

I believe the metering is done by a private section now. So technically this would work, at the very least once. Every ticket I have ever gotten was hand written, and I dont believe they go as far as to research the plate number other than flagging it for a boot. By the time the ticket is entered into the system you're probably gone.

A buddy did this during our college days and it did work. He used an old plate and neve once had a ticket sent to his name. It was also a college campus and this was 8 years ago.

**noggin** · January-17-12, 07:39 PM

If the city was really interested in car theft they would use this as an opportunity to have a task force to catch car thieves. Instead they are more interested in towing away the cars of the victims.

**Zacha341** · January-17-12, 08:08 PM

EXCELLENT POINT NOGGIN!!!!! A case of looking down the microscope the wrong end indeed! Post of the day relative to this whole thread!!!

Originally Posted by noggin

If the city was really interested in car theft they would use this as an opportunity to have a task force to catch car thieves. Instead they are more interested in towing away the cars of the victims.

**corktownyuppie** · January-17-12, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by noggin

If the city was really interested in car theft they would use this as an opportunity to have a task force to catch car thieves. Instead they are more interested in towing away the cars of the victims.

Look, I'm as pissed as everyone else about this. But look at the logic of what you're proposing. The whole reason why Godbee put this into place is because he knows he doesn't have the budget to put enough cops on the street to prevent the crime.

A task force would be great. Who would pay for it, the city?

Godbee and Commander Williams actually ARE putting a task force into place. The task force has been outsourced to a private company and is funded by the people who will be parking in that area. The task force is Olympia. And the people paying them will be the ones who are parking there.

This way, there is no complaining from people living in the outer neighborhoods that "downtown is stealing resources from the rest of the city" or that "the city is unfairly using scarce resources to guard suburban tourists' cars".

Am I happy with it? No. Could it have been better explained to local businesses and tourists? Yes.

But at the end of the day, am I happy to pay $5 and have my car be safe? Uh, that's what I pay to park in the structures in Downtown Royal Oak and Birmingham...so yes. And this way, no one's crying that money is being pulled from the neighborhoods that need it.

My only feedback is that a municipally owned lot could do the same service and keep the revenues from parking. I think that's a legitimate idea worth consideration.

**Enduro** · January-18-12, 12:04 AM

This is an embarrassment. The city basically victimized legally parked citizens because they were potential victims of crime. If they caught the thieves they could never pay their fines so rather than catch the fox, they killed the hens. Bad press, bad business, bad move all around.

This area should be as safe as Greektown with all the walkable restaurants, stadiums, theaters and bars. From the Opera House to 75 should be a beat walked by cops like they do in Greektown, just imagine how many businesses may join Cliff's, Bookies, the Pump, Park, Hot Taco and the rest if this became a safe district. This policy is absolutely pathetic.