Carpentersville ticket amnesty program collects more than $30,000
If you hoped to take advantage of a Carpentersville program that let you pay half the face value of your old tickets, you’re out of luck.
The one-time amnesty program ended Monday, with police settling 1,044 tickets and collecting $30,680, said Ed Dennis, the police chief’s project coordinator. The program started July 1 and applied to people who received citations before that date. Authorities are holding fast to the deadline.
“People had the time to do it and if they disregard the notices and failed to come in and take care of it, then they just have to pay the full price,” Dennis said.
Police departments are lucky if they recover between 2 and 6 percent of what’s actually owed. The department collected roughly 3.3 percent of the outstanding amount of $930,000 in unpaid citations going back four years.
Dennis was hoping to get at least $25,000 and as it turns out, more money may be forthcoming.
“We had someone call in from out of state (Monday) and I said, ‘Hey, if you put the money in the mail today, we’ll take it,’ ” Dennis said, adding that the woman in North Carolina found out about the program because the post office forwarded her notice from Carpentersville.
“It’s nice to see that there are some people, once they are made aware of the unpaid citations, that they want to take care of them,” Dennis said. “Our whole objective is compliance.”
The largest amount in fines came from a mother and son who owed $6,550 on 116 tickets. They ended up paying half of that because they settled their debt before Monday’s deadline.
Serious penalties are now in effect for those with outstanding tickets. Police will boot cars for people with five unpaid tickets and recommend license suspensions for those with 10.
People who got tickets July 1 and after, can challenge them in the village’s new adjudication court, which started hearing cases on sticker and parking ticket violations Wednesday. Police issued 353 tickets since July 1 that will go through the adjudication process, officials said.
The village website has listed the names of people with outstanding tickets, so if you think you owe something, visit vil.carpentersville.il.us and click “ticket amnesty program.”
Although the amnesty program was relatively successful, Dennis does not anticipate bringing it back as a revenue stream.
“The idea is that we were coupling this with the new ordinance and the possibility of having their cars booted or towed,” Dennis said. “It’s a good way to clear the books of as many old tickets as we can. ... Having another amnesty, I don’t know how we can justify it.”