Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned on a promise to bring equity to an overly punitive ticketing, towing and booting policy that has unfairly targeted minorities and forced thousands into bankruptcy, The Chicago Sun-Times reported. On Tuesday, the new mayor will outline her plan to start delivering on those promises. The mayor’s ticket-debt relief plan would (1) reinstate the 15-day grace period to renew vehicle stickers; (2) cap the fine for not renewing at $200 (it now doubles after 83 days); (3) cease “same-day or consecutive day ticketing” for violators; (4) create a six-month, universal payment plan with lower down payments and, for motorists in financial distress, more time to pay; (5) end driver’s license suspensions for non-moving violations; and (6) empower scofflaws whose vehicles are booted to request a 24-hour extension to pay their fines in full or get on a payment plan. During the campaign, Lightfoot promised to dramatically curtail the use of that dreaded wheel-locking device to prevent hard-pressed motorists from losing their wheels and, therefore, their ability to get to work and earn a living. That could mean “stopping the practice of booting cars for non-moving tickets, raising the threshold of when a car should be booted or limiting the city’s ability to sell impounded cars,” she said then.
