John Sotiropoulos speaks from personal experience when it comes to the way the city deals with outstanding debt from parking and speeding tickets.
“They’re going after everybody for money,” Sotiropoulos, a Chicago Uber driver removed from the platform because of his debt, told Flexible Work News. “They’re collecting money from everywhere; they just don’t know how to spend it correctly.”
A recent ProPublica Illinois investigation finds that the city of Chicago issues more than 3 million tickets annually for a wide range of parking, vehicle compliance and automated traffic camera violations, with average ticket costs ranging from $25 citations for broken headlights to $250 tickets for parking in a disabled zone.
All told, the report says that Chicago motorists now owe in the neighborhood of $1.45 billion in ticket debt, dating back to 1990. Researchers added that city officials mail vehicle owners multiple notices to give them time to pay or contest tickets before fines double, get sent to collections or land a car on a list to be booted.
Across the state, there’s no statute of limitations for unpaid tickets, meaning once debt starts to accumulate, it can remain on the books forever. From year to year, the city of Chicago issues millions of tickets to drivers, and debt can quickly add up based on late fees that continue to accrue over time. And Cook County law stipulates that anyone with outstanding debt to the city receives a driver's license suspension
Sec. 54-391 of the Cook County Code of Ordinances states: "The license of any person who has failed to pay any fine, assessment of costs or other sum of money owed to the County pursuant to an order of the Department of Revenue, an order of the Department of Administrative Hearings or a court order, by the due date indicated in the order, or within 30 calendar days of becoming a debt due and owing, may be suspended by the Department of Revenue, in accordance with its rules and after affording a hearing. The license shall be suspended until such time that the fine, assessment of costs or other sum of money has been fully paid."
According to NPR, the city of Chicago is the only major U.S. city with a program that deactivates gig workers, primarily ride-share drivers, for their unpaid ticket debt. In 2019 alone, the city's policy required Uber and Lyft to suspend more than 15,500 people, with most of the suspensions impacting black and low-income neighborhoods the most.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that booting and ticketing have now become two of the city government’s biggest revenue generators.
Editor’s Note: This story is part of an ongoing series covering the impact of government policy on those earning money from the gig economy.