Aug 26, 2009 12:20 pm US/Central
Sticker Shock For Outsiders In Tinley Park
No Municipal Sticker For Your Town? That's A Ticket
TINLEY PARK, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
The rules say if you don't have a municipal sticker on your car in Tinley Park, you can be ticketed -- and the ticket comes with a $25 price tag -- whether or not you are a resident of the south suburb.
Last Thursday evening, Tom and Jenny Schubert went to Texas Roadhouse, a restaurant on LaGrange Road in Tinley Park. Next to the Interstate 80 interchange, sharing a parking lot with a hotel, the restaurant looks to be the type of place where customers from throughout the country stop to eat.
After dinner, the Schuberts, of Channahon, ventured out for some shopping.
But their last course - a $25 ticket from Tinley Park police for not having a village sticker displayed on their windshield - didn't go down too well.
The Schuberts figured there was a misunderstanding. They don't live in Tinley Park. And Channahon doesn't require residents to buy the annoying stickers for their cars.
They called the police department.
But there was no mistake.
They were told the ticket was good. If they didn't like it, they could come to the police station and file paperwork requesting that the ticket be revoked.
"I was like, 'What?!' Why do I have to waste my time to drive to your police department and fill this out," Jenny Schubert said. "I didn't do anything wrong. I considered it harassment, but the officer at the station told me they do it all the time."
While she grudgingly filled out the complaint form, another diner at the same restaurant walked in with a ticket for the same offense. He was from DeKalb, another community that doesn't require residents to buy municipal stickers for their vehicles.
Tuesday morning, a miffed Schubert stood in her kitchen waiting to hear from Tinley Park police about what to do next. She wondered, rightfully so, about the consequences to her criminal record and credit worthiness if she ignored the violation.
She suspects others have paid the fines and moved on with their lives.
"We still don't know what happened," Schubert said. "They told me the protest officer would review it. They said if I didn't hear from them, everything is OK. Well, that's not acceptable to me."
But Ordinance 73.15 in Tinley Park made it OK.
The law allows Tinley Park cops to ticket any vehicle without a municipal sticker - even if the vehicle is from outside the village. If a vehicle is from out of town and doesn't have a sticker, it generally is assumed by police the owner is out of compliance because, well, all communities must require stickers.
Schubert has another word for Ordinance 73.15.
"It's a scam," she said.
Tinley Park police Cmdr. Rick Bruno said the officers who wrote the tickets at Texas Roadhouse might have been overzealous, but they weren't out of line.
"It was a case of our officers taking our ordinances very seriously," he said. "The officers were doing what they thought they should be doing."
The stickers, in all suburbs, are a hassle for residents, but they mean big money for local governments.
At $25 a pop, plus the various late charges for not buying them by June 30, the stickers in Tinley Park generated $450,000 for the 2009 fiscal year.
Bruno said residents who buy the stickers don't want anyone else to get a free ride. Neighbors will rat on each other if they notice the same decal is not in the windshields on the driveway next to them.
"There is a strong desire by the public that people should pay for their village stickers. We are trying to make sure everyone is in compliance."
If that means writing a ticket to any vehicle without a sticker, so be it. "There are certain things people have to be responsible for," Bruno said. "The onus is on them."
There might be a happy ending with the Schuberts.
Bruno said they will be notified their ticket was tossed.
He also has asked his officers to cease writing similar tickets unless they can verify the car is registered to a Tinley Park address or owned by a village resident.
At an upcoming village board meeting, the police department will ask for a repeal of Ordinance 73.15, he said.
"People should be considered innocent until proven guilty," he said. "We will not issue tickets to anyone unless we can confirm they are a Tinley Park resident."
The Schuberts and whoever else was welcomed to the community with a trip to the police station could have done without the civics lesson.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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