Oxford issued nearly 20,000 parking citations in 2023, generating more than $430,000 in revenue. The most common type of citation issued was for expired meters which accounted for 59% of all tickets issued by the Oxford Police Parking Division.
“We are trying to make a holistic effort to keep parking available for visitors and potential customers in the Uptown district. We need our meters to keep drivers from parking in one spot all day,” said Lt. Lara Fening.
As well as revenue from tickets, the city collected about $550,000 from metered parking in 2023. This includes coins, credit cards and Park Mobile payments.
“Meter and ticket revenue go mostly into sustaining our department, no one is pocketing anything,” said OPD office manager Amy Gabbard.
Parking violations range from $10 to $25 for expired meter tickets, depending on how quickly the fine is paid. General parking violations — like parking in a yellow zone or taking up multiple spaces – starts at $25 and increases with the number of parking offenses previously reported. OPD can begin immobilizing vehicles with a boot, or towing them, after the second parking ticket which starts at $125 and increases in cost each day the boot remains in storage.
After accounting for expenses, parking meters contributed $300,000 in revenue to the city’s general fund and maintaining the parking department in 2023.
“Don’t be misled to think that this is an easy money stream or pure profit. There are steep expenses involved with our parking meter technology, contracts, staffing and equipment maintenance,” Fening said.
One area of the parking division lost money was with parking ticket appeals. In 2023, 1,100 tickets were appealed. Just under half of the appeal cases were overturned and the tickets were dismissed.
“I was kind of shocked to see the approval rate was that high too,” said Fening, “but still we do not just uphold any and every excuse.”
OPD has three full time “public safety assistants” who manage and issue violations for Oxford’s 800 parking spaces. They have no set routes for patrol.
“Our routes are not hard-wired. It is based on demand. As more cars come in throughout the day the more often that area is patrolled,” said Public Safety Assistant Angela Schatzle. “We are not ignoring the low-traffic areas, but we are checking areas we know the people are at.”
OPD utilizes automated license plate recognition technology to increase efficiency and keep track of who has paid using the Park Mobile application.
