Trending
A Chautauqua County official is asking the state Attorney General to address the problem of dozens of traffic citations being issued to a local resident for violations in New York City based on a license plate that he doesn't have.
Last month, County Clerk Gregory Carlson sent a letter to the New York City Department of Finance saying that a disabled Navy veteran that he represents had at that point received 13 traffic citations for a license plate that actually is from a bus operated by the New York City Transit Authority.
Carlson said earlier this week that since his initial letter Sept. 16, his constituent has received another 14 tickets.
Carlson has reached out to state Attorney General Letitia James to intervene.
"My constituent ... had received numerous parking tickets from New York City on the opposite end of the state. Pictured clearly in each and every citation is a New York City Transit Bus parked in a no-parking zone. Correspondence was sent with exculpatory evidence, and on June 8th, the NYC Department of Finance acknowledged the error. However, since acknowledging the error they’ve sent dozens more tickets, all with the same NYC Transit bus in the no parking zone," Carlson wrote. "In September, this information was sent directly to email contacts from the Department of Finance. I’ve received zero response, and my constituent continues to receive tickets on an almost daily basis. This is both gross negligence, and harassment at this point."
Before Carlson took office, there had been concerns about either license plates being stolen and used on other vehicles or drivers modifying license plates with a new letter/number combination which ends up belonging to someone else.
While Carlson couldn't find any evidence to prove anything illegal was taking place with local residents' license plates, he instituted a new system to have plates immediately destroyed in front of a supervisor.
Unlike those situations, this resident is getting tickets for a license plate that he doesn't have and appears to be on a bus in New York City.
Carlson said in the past when there have been tickets wrongly issued to local residents from around the state or country, he's been able to resolve them quickly. The exception continues to be with the New York City Department of Finance.