Some of the 150 vehicles towed in Moorhead each year for unpaid parking tickets never are claimed and that number probably will climb now that fines have gone up, police Lt. Dan Hunt said.
"We have people that abandon their cars because they can't afford to pay for four or five tickets. That's when the tickets were $15," Hunt said.
"If you're talking $300 to get the car back, I think the number of impounds that aren't claimed is going to increase."
Ticket fees have jumped from $12 with a $5 late fee after five days, to a $15 fine that jumps to $20 after five days, $25 after 10 days and $55 after 30 days.
The impound fee is $75, plus storage fees of $5 a day after the second day.
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In Moorhead, anyone with four unpaid parking citations could see their vehicle impounded if they again park where they shouldn't.
At any given time, about 50 vehicles are candidates for impound, Hunt said.
Impounded vehicles not claimed by their owners end up at Moorhead's annual impound sale.
Nine vehicles were sold at auction April 26.
Since April, a Milwaukee-based company called Professional Parking Solutions began handling ticket processing and fine collecting for the Police Department, which issued about 16,000 parking tickets last year.
As part of the change, ticket writers carry hand-held computers that show how many outstanding tickets a vehicle has.
When it comes to catching scofflaws, the new system will only catch unpaid tickets written since April.
To catch people with older citations, the Police Department relies on its own records, Hunt said.
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How well the new system will work remains to be seen, Hunt said.
One thing it should do, he added, is improve collection of tickets the city once dismissed as uncollectible because Professional Parking Solutions will act as a bill collector, pushing people to pay no matter where they live.
"We used to delete 1,000 tickets (a year) as uncollectible," Hunt said. "Now, if people don't pay, their credit will be affected."
In the past, most ticket payments -- and complaints -- went to Bunnie Jacobson, a Police Department employee who now handles other duties.
"I think the most guilty were the ones that made the biggest scene," said Jacobson, recalling one incident when a man came through the door "screaming and hollering."
Jacobson told the man he owed $8.
"He's taking his wallet out and screaming the whole time," Jacobson said. "I rang it up, I handed him the receipt and I said, 'That's it. You just had your $8 worth. Leave.
"The guy looked at me, and he left," Jacobson said, letting loose with a laugh.
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"I like a conflict once in a while. I don't like to fight, but I like to debate," said Jacobson, who handled parking tickets for 15 years.
"I miss the people," she added. "The good outweighed the bad ones."
