Marietta Police Chief Rodney Hupp, Mayor Schlicher, and Law Director Paul Bertram released a joint statement concerning the town's restart of parking enforcement operations.
"The cities are allowed to regulate the streets inside their municipal borders," Chief Hupp stated. "The parking is regulated so that a public good is shared equally amongst all citizens. What it would really amount to in the absence of this, is that someone could park their car on the street, walk away from it, and expect it would be there in a rusted-mess in 20 years."
The City of Marietta suspended parking enforcement operations in 2019 after a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit unanimously ruled that the chalking of tires violates the Fourth Amendment's clause banning unreasonable searches and seizures. Three days later, the judges issued an amended ruling stating that chalking of tires is a search under the Fourth Amendment, though it does not mean the search is unlawful.
"The search as the court defined it was the touching of the tire with a piece of chalk," Chief Hupp continued. "Their definition of it was it was a physical touching for the purpose of gaining information. I don't necessarily agree with that but what i think is relevant here is that the court made that determination and they set the rules for how we have to operate and that is fine."
The case was brought by an Alison Taylor, who was issued 15 parking tickets in three years in Saginaw, Michigan.
The practice known as "chalking", is when parking enforcement officers use chalk to leave a mark on a vehicle's tire in order to track how long the vehicle stays in a given spot.
As previously reported, the city has overhauled and corrected the parking ordinances and removed any criminal law implications of parking enforcement. In addition, 77 signs in total, will be posted where people can see that they grant consent to have their tires chalked by parking at that location.
"If this had any hint of underhandedness, I would not have anything to do with it," Chief Hupp said. "This is a perfectly legal and morally correct effort on the part of the City of Marietta."
Parking enforcement operations will resume on July 6th.
