Latest Updates
Hi everyone,
Here are the latest updates regarding the Overnight Parking Ban petition.
Petition Status: Submitted
The petition was submitted to the Select Board’s office on February 16th, 2024. I have since confirmed that the petition has been sent straight to the TRC (traffic review committee).
TRC Members:
Tonight I was able to clarify who is on the TRC. They are:
- Town engineer: Matt Shuman
- Planning Board: Diab Jerius
- Police Chief: Daniel O’Connell
- Fire Chief: Rick Tustin
Public Works: Robert LaBossiere
As a reminder, this committee will review the petition and make a recommendation to the Select Board.
Public Comments, 26 February Select Board Meeting
This evening, I spoke at the Select Board meeting to request a temporary halt of the overnight parking ban enforcement. This request is based on research which suggests that the current enforcement policy (of targeted enforcement) is potentially illegal. My full comments to the Select Board can be found below.
Issues with the TRC
I find it problematic that the petition has been sent to the TRC for the following reasons:
- There is no timeline regarding when the TRC will review the petition and give it’s recommendation. According to Matt Schuman, the committee only meets twice a year.
- Potentially, the TRC is not capable of returning an unbiased recommendation due to the inclusion of the police chief (on a matter that potentially would limit police powers) and because the town residents themselves are not represented.
Next Steps
- I will continue to give public comments at the regularly-scheduled Select Board meetings to ensure that this issue is not “put on the back burner” and forgotten. As far as I know, the next Select Board meeting is March 11th.
- I will be writing to the Select Board to express my concerns about the petition being handled by the TRC and request that the petition be reviewed by a committee that balances the concerns of town officials with the needs and concerns of town residents.
Select Board Meeting Public Comments: 26 February
Good evening. My name is Jeremy Elliott, a resident at 247 Washington Street.
I recently submitted a petition for the town to allow overnight parking whenever there is not a snow emergency. Currently, the town is planning to add multi-family units with limited parking in already-densely populated areas, so now would be a great time to review the overnight parking ban and decide whether our newest residents will have access to overnight parking…before they move into town. This evening, I would like to comment on a related matter.
During a Select Board Meeting on the 27 November, at least two members of this board determined that stricter enforcement of the overnight parking ban was needed. This conclusion was based on the off-topic opinions of two individuals at what was supposed to be a public hearing about a no parking sign, and one of the two individuals was not even a town resident.
The Select Board members did not investigate the reasons for the historically low enforcement of the ban, did not ask or allow for public comments on this matter, and did not consider seeking input from the WPD regarding current enforcement policy before the chair directed our town manager to have the Chief of Police increase enforcement.
Less than 2 months later, the Winchester News published an article that stated that enforcement of the overnight parking ban had increased significantly versus previous years. Yet after personally reviewing the official parking ticket data provided by the WPD, I discovered that this was only half true.
Enforcement has only increased on a limited number of streets. The majority of streets where cars can routinely be found parked overnight in Winchester have not been issued a single ticket. According to the previously mentioned news article, the police only enforce when residents complain (which has resulted in specific areas being heavily targeted).
Last week on February 21, a federal judge in California found that “selective prosecution” of sporadically enforced regulations was unconstitutional as it violated the “Due Process” clause of the 5th amendment with requires “equal protection.” This case – the United States vs. Rundo and Boman – concerns defendants of a far-right group that were charged with crimes for committing the same actions on the same day as a far-left group whose members were not charged. As a result of this selective enforcement, the motion to dismiss the case was granted.
I respectfully contend that the current enforcement policy of the overnight parking ban is factually similar because the enforcement is not random but instead targets specific locations of the town while willfully ignoring the same violations on neighboring streets. In other words, the WPD does not have the legal right to target specific streets regardless of the reason. Any legal enforcement of the overnight parking ban must be equal in nature (i.e. either very strict or statistically random), and the current situation is the extreme opposite.
For example, every night during this winter season, vehicles have been parked on Nelson and Westley Streets. Yet from 27 November through January 11th, not a single ticket was issued on these two streets, while vehicles on the two neighboring streets of Webster and Hancock were issued a total of 55 tickets. And even with the increased enforcement this winter season, I have estimated that less than 1 in 100 vehicles that are parked overnight in Winchester receives a parking ticket.
To remedy the current situation, I would strongly suggest that the WPD temporarily but immediately halt the enforcement of the overnight parking ban until a legal enforcement policy can implemented. Luckily, I already have the solution for implementing such a policy.
During a discussion with a member of the Network of Social Justice, I discovered that Winchester had a similar issue a few years ago when certain local residents would call the police to report any POC as suspicious. This prompted the police to dispatch a patrol car each time a POC was walking the streets of Winchester in specific areas.
Despite the WPD’s best intentions, this could have resulted in the town of Winchester being hit with a Civil Rights lawsuit. Luckily, the Network of Social Justice stepped in by counseling the police dispatch to ask a simple follow up question to the suspicious person report: is there a public safety concern? As a result, the discriminatory practice of investigating each POC as suspicious was eliminated.
I respectfully request that we do the same for vehicles parked overnight. Specifically: if a resident complains about an overnight parking issue, the police should not enforce the overnight parking ban unless there is a clear public safety issue, such as a blocked driveway or obstructed roadway. This would eliminate any pretense that the enforcement policy is discriminatory and violates the equal protections clause of our Constitution.
A copy of my remarks tonight will be emailed to the members of the Select Board and the town manager. Thank you.
Donate:
Absolutely no pressure, but if anyone would like to give a (non-tax-deductible) donation to this effort to support the costs (including website hosting, domain registration, other IT expenses, evidence gathering, etc.), a link is below. (Suggested donation: the price of 1 parking ticket :)))
