Hi,
Here is the story :
I'm walking on a street in Brooklyn, NY and I see that a "Traffic
agent" is walking the street and looking for expired meters so he/she
can write parking tickets.
I would like to know if It's legal for me to do the following:
Checking the meter before the officer writes a ticket, and If I see
that the meter is expired, I want to deposit money, so they cannot
write a ticket.
Just to clarify again: The car that's about to get ticketed is not my
car. Can I be a "good citizen" and deposit money into the meter so
that some other person won't get ticketed ?
How about if it's my friends car ???
Please refer me to someplace where I can find out the law ...
Thanks
http://mediafilter.org/guest/Pages/August.14.1998.17.27.03
"But of course nyc says there's no ticket quota. If meters are not a
problem, then why was the "meter fairy" arrested? The meter fairy was
an older man who would roam the city with a bag of quarters & he would
put change in meters that were about to expire. Know what your local
NYPD did? Arrested him. They still have yet to say what law he broke"
This comment is not to contradict the answer (as I have no idea what
the law is today or how this arrest panned out) - I just thought I'd
mention it because the story stuck in my mind.
Have a good day.
tutuzdad-ga is ultimately right - I can't imagine how any law/policy
such as this would stand up in court.
Have a good day.
Dear confused_chassid-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. As you may already know we can?t provide legal advice in
this forum so that is not the intent and purpose of my answer. What I
am doing is exactly what you asked for ? I am point you to published
law to support my research.
Please allow me to embellish with capitalization where it is necessary
to draw attention to the pertinent parts of published law. New York
Criminal Procedure Law 150.20 states, in part:
?A public servant other than a police officer, who is specially
authorized by state law or local law enacted pursuant to the
provisions of the municipal home rule law to issue and serve
appearance tickets with respect to designated offenses other than
class A, B, C or D felonies or violations of section 130.25, 130.40,
205.10, 205.17, 205.19 or 15.56 of the penal law, MAY IN SUCH CASES
ISSUE AND SERVE UPON A PERSON AN APPEARANCE TICKET WHEN HE HAS
REASONABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT SUCH PERSON HAS COMMITTED A CRIME, OR
HAS COMMITTED A PETTY OFFENSE IN HIS PRESENCE.?
NEW YORK ASSEMBLY
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/
Now, having said that let me provide you with two scenarios:
1. You observe a parking enforcement officer approaching a vehicle
that is parked at an expired meter. Before the officer arrives and
notices that the meter is expired and that a parking violation exists,
you, out of the goodness of your heart, pop a coin in the meter and in
doing so essentially prohibit the discovery of the meter violation (in
other words, you right a wrong before it is discovered by the only
person in the vicinity with the authority to act upon it). Upon the
arrival of the parking enforcement officer there is no crime, petty
offense or violation, thus the parking enforcement officer walks on.
Now the statute gives the authority to serve a summons to a citizen by
a public servant charged with that responsibility ONLY if that public
servant ?has reasonable cause to believe? or is an actual witness to
the crime in question. Since there is no reasonable belief, nor
visible evidence, according to Criminal Procedure Law 150.20
mentioned above, no violation exists.
In this scenario then, it would be legal for you to add a coin to an
expired meter without fear of interfering with the lawful duties of
the parking enforcement officer. In fact, the parking enforcement
officer may even be thankful that you had made his or her job a bit
easier.
2. You observe a parking enforcement officer approaching a vehicle
that is parked at an expired meter. The parking enforcement officer
sees the expired meter too and approaches to issue a summons. As the
officer approaches you drop a few coins in the meter. Regardless, the
officer can, at his or her discretion, issue a ticket under the
authority of Criminal Procedure Law 150.20 because the offense
occurred in his or her presence and they witnessed the parking
offense.
Might the parking enforcement officer simply let it go because you
paid the strangers parking fee? Sure; maybe
Might the parking enforcement officer give you a stern verbal
reprimand for trying to conceal the violation? Probably not, but hey,
this is New York we?re talking about here, so it?s possible.
Is there anything the parking enforcement officer can do about your
anonymous generosity? No, not really. As in scenario #1 he or she
might even appreciate it, when it comes right down to it, but that?s
mere speculation.
Incidentally, it is adds credibility to my research I have been in law
enforcement for more than 20 years myself and I know first hand the
necessity of having to have reasonable belief, probable cause and
visible evidence in criminal cases. If an officer doesn?t have them,
according to state statutes he doesn?t have crime - And if he doesn?t
have a crime, he doesn?t have a case. It?s just that simple.
I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher
OTHER INFORMATION SOURCES
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Parking
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Reasonable belief
I've heard of cases in which people attempting to be good samaritans
have fed meters for others, and were arrested and fined.
I think that there's a diseased mentality at work that any lawmaking
body could criminalize such behavior, classifying it as "governmental
obstruction" or somesuch nonsense.
I can understand that if, for example, you stumble across a friend
being arrested for something, and try to interpose yourself between
yourself and that officer, you are arrested and charged with
obstruction.
Let's face it folks, to nearly every municipality out there, you're
just a cash register with legs...
I can't see how putting change in someone's expired meter is any more
obstructive than, say, volunteering to drive a drunk home in order to
prevent the crime of DWI. That's just common sense. The truth is there
is no law in New York (or anywhere else that I know of) that punishes
a citizen for being proactive and intervening in a violation of the
law so long as he does not become an accomplice or co-conspirator in
the commission of it.
tutuzdad-ga
That's our Tutuzdad, just a friendly old cop. :)
Since I know that in some places there are maximum times even for
metered parking, I checked for NYC:
http://www.citidex.com/3469.htm
Scroll down to TYPTip and you'll see that this can be so in the Big Apple.
 What kind of aggressive tropical freshwater fish go together? I want a ghost fish, African cichlids etc?
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