Using Chalk On Tires For Parking Enforcement Violates Constitution.

[Cattledog]

"Trespassing upon a privately-owned vehicle parked on a public street to place a chalk mark to begin gathering information to ultimately impose a government sanction is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment," Taylor's lawyer, Philip Ellison, wrote in a court filing.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit unanimously agreed. Chalking tires is a kind of trespass, Judge Bernice Donald wrote for the panel, and it requires a warrant. The decision affects the 6th Circuit, which includes Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

LAW
High Court: Warrant Needed For GPS Tracking Device
The Fourth Amendment protects people from "unreasonable searches and seizures." To determine whether a violation has occurred, the court first asks whether the government's conduct counts as a search; if so, it asks whether the search was reasonable.

The court found that chalking is indeed a "search" for purposes of the Fourth Amendment, because government officials physically trespass upon a constitutionally protected area to obtain information. Just as the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that sticking a GPS tracker to a car counted as a "search," so is marking a tire with chalk to figure out how long it has been parked, the court wrote.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/23/716248823/court-says-using-chalk-on-tires-for-parking-enforcement-violates-constitution?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190423&fbclid=IwAR3K9FgxGIIFHJBzB1bagquGdudK1HdjHpZbAG3mmoVIKENA3PL15Vbt4xo

[exboyfil]

1. But stopping and frisking a black kid

just because he looks suspicious. That is ok.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Actually it isn't and New York City lost a lawsuit in that matter...

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_v._City_of_New_York

[Salviati]

2. This is a ridiculous ruling

If that's the way the anti-government people want to roll, then say goodbye to free parking. If this sticks, then parking is going to be metered, or require a permit.

[Aristus]

5. In Tacoma, Washington, it's already 'goodbye to free parking'.

Most curbs in the city not marked as fire zones or for loading and unloading only have been metered for pay-parking. It's usually a dollar an hour or so, and one can usually get away with a free in-and-out if it's quick, five to ten minutes or so.

[maxsolomon]

17. Please. What neighborhood are you talking about?

I was in Hilltop last week and there aren't any meters, or resident permit areas, etc.

Tacoma is parking paradise.

[Aristus]

18. A little further down the hill.

Starting about Market Street or Jefferson.

[maxsolomon]

20. That's life in the big city.

You know what the rates are in Seattle, right? $4/hour until 8 pm!

[underpants]

3. Wow. Really?

This was worth all that time and expense?

[struggle4progress]

4. Saginaw should appeal

[onenote]

7. Why? Are we now in favor of limiting the Fourth Amendment?

The three judges that unanimously agreed that this was an unlawful search were a Carter appointee, an Obama appointee, and a GWBush appointee.

[struggle4progress]

11. Because a person parked on a public street has no reasonable expectation

that some colored dust would not briefly appear on a tire, nor does chalk dust on a tire violate any reasonably-expected privacy. The dust of chalk dust is a very old and customary method, well-known to drivers: it cannot have come as a surprise to anyone

Moreover, the city has the authority to limit parking times on streets and the authority to enforce those limits in any reasonable way. The posting of the time limits constitutes adequate notice to any reasonable person of the possibility that the city will enforce those limits; and the person who does not wish to consent to enforcement (by chalk dust or other method) is not obliged to park there

[Amishman]

8. No, they should apologize

Constitutional concerns aside, it's also borderline vandalism

[struggle4progress]

13. de minimis non curat lex

There is here no property "damage" whatsoever; and there is no "defacing" of the property that would not be instantly undone by the simple and ordinary act of unparking the car to put it to its standard use as a mode of transport

[A HERETIC I AM]

22. "its standard use as a mode of transport"

With the possible exception of taxicabs and similar, the vast majority of automobiles spend the lions share of their time sitting still with no one in them.

So.....perhaps their real "standard use" is as place holders. They have the subordinate purpose of acting as modes of transport.

If someone comes along and makes a mark on MY tires? You're god damned right it's defacing my property. Particularly when the sole purpose of said defacement is to assist the state in an attempt to extract funds from me against my will.

[struggle4progress]

27. Well, I'm not enough of a libertarian as to buy that argument

[struggle4progress]

29. Most people don't purchase motor vehicles as "place holders"

Lots of people own silverware that spends most of its time in a drawer, but it wasn't bought to occupy the drawer

[A HERETIC I AM]

32. Well, I figured I would make an absurd argument.....

as a counter to yours.

[harumph]

9. Ok, then take a picture of the tires/car and send it to the cloud.

That would pass muster. See how easy it is.

[hunter]

10. High tech vs. low tech.

Now every parking enforcement department will have to buy the expensive cameras, computers, and software.

On the other hand, if I was emperor of the earth I'd discourage car ownership.

Car culture is bad for the planet, and bad for our health.

[struggle4progress]

12. Is it a warrantless search to point a radar gun at a vehicle before it is known to be speeding?

[NYC Liberal]

14. That doesn't require physically touching the car like chalking or

placing a GPS tracker does. Not the same. And the ruling specifically calls out that it’s unconstitutional because the government must physically trespass on the car.

[struggle4progress]

16. It bounces radio waves off the vehicle; they interact with it; and the method is not using

already ambient illumination

But in any case, direct touch is not we determine whether or not a search has occurred: the question is whether a reasonable expectation of privacy is involved. A police use of a parabolic microphone to hear a conversation at a distance, or a police use of infrared imaging to study movements in a house, might well be illegal without a warrant, despite the fact that they is no direct touch

The radar gun is tolerated because there is a legitimate public interest in controlling speed on roads and no reasonable expectation that vehicle speed is a private matter and will not be measured

[NutmegYankee]

24. Bouncing radio waves or light off an object isn't the same as physically marking it.

Stop advancing a police state.

[struggle4progress]

28. You and I must mean very different things by "police state"

[NutmegYankee]

25. Since I have police in the family...

I’m aware that the radar isn’t used to detect speeding, it is used to confirm it. The officer uses his eyes to detect a vehicle going excessively fast and the radar just confirms and potentially quantifies. The vision is the probable cause and an officer can use that alone to ticket.

[struggle4progress]

30. Cool story, bro!

Some of the police I've known just hang the radar gun out the window, read a book, and wait until it goes off.

[NutmegYankee]

31. Then you don't know any police.

The radar guns make a very annoying noise even for non-speeding traffic. It just gets louder with speed. Also, the officer can't read a book while doing this. They are required to determine which car is speeding and that requires keeping their eyes peeled.

You tried the cutesy "cool story bro" dismissal, but i'll be blunt - You're lying.

[Takket]

15. Is it also trespassing to put a ticket under my wiper?

[onenote]

19. No, because the ticket is placed there after the law is broken

The chalking occurs while the car is legally parked and there is no probable cause that a criminal violation has been or is about to be committed.

[Takket]

21. damn.... LOL

[SoCalNative]

26. Most of the parking enforcement

that will chalk car tires in my city only do so after a complaint has been received that a vehicle has been parked in excess of the permitted time (per the municipal code and not in a metered area). So in that case I would think that they HAD probable cause and would therefore not be a fourth amendment violation.

[llmart]

23. Jaysus!

As if this country doesn't have enough to worry about that is so much bigger than this. No wonder our court dockets are so overwhelming.