An Open Letter To The City Of Cleveland Police Department

Dear Moral Claims Department,

I find it impossible to launch into my earnest complaint before explaining the situation surrounding the debacle in detail: 

First and foremost, I am an honest, hard-working, tax payer who has made living in the city of Cleveland her home for the past 11 years now. I’m a owner of two properties. Work in the city of Cleveland, and I pay more than my fair share of taxes. My moral compass points True North, and I try and do what’s right; offer a lending hand, an extra dollar or two to those less fortunate than myself. I’ve had one moving violation and maybe two parking tickets in those 11 years. Suffice to say, I’m not a law breaker by any stretch of the imagination, and I feel that I’m an honest, good person. I’m far too busy in both my work and personal life to veer off into the path of crime. I’m also not inclined to pay the fees, or do the time associated with law breaking. And more importantly, as already pointed out, it’s not in my moral nature.

This letter is about my annual car registration, and the debacle that so ensues surrounding it. My grief-stricken sadness regarding this incident has forced me to write this letter. With that being said, I’d like to mention now that the punishment should fit the crime - and the current policy, which appears to be a one blanket punishment is extreme and rarely, if ever the right way to enforce a law. I’ve learned no lesson from the extreme punishment that I received, other than the fact that the police department uses force instead of using good, rational judgment and common sense discretion when issuing fines. I’ve only been hugely inconvienced, and lost faith in the police department, who is supposed to protect me. And have my best interest in mind.  After all, I’m not a criminal. I am a law-abiding, tax-paying, property owner, city-worker, Cleveland citizen.

Life is, well, life is busy. Sometimes things fall through the cracks, even for the most law abiding citizens. And it appears this is what happened to me in 2011 in regards to my annual car registration.  I receive a notice in the mail about a month or so before my birthday, which happens to be in November.  No offense to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, but the only time I ever step foot into one of their locations is when I’m have to have my picture taken for my driver’s license. This year, I changed my address, because I’d moved, and I realized I didn’t receive some of my important mail. A few bills were lost, and it appears the annual car registration was lost as well. I didn’t know that, or I would have acted on it immediately.  Let me explain in more detail - as previously mentioned, my life keeps me very busy. If you were to ask me if I had received my car registration renewal notice in the mail; sent the check and put the new tags on the car, I would have said, ”Yes, of course - I do that every year.” So when I learned that my registration wasn’t paid, after also being notified that my car was towed because of it, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I thought there was a mix up in the mail. I really thought I’d mailed the check and somehow the shiny, bright sticker that read 2012 simply never got to me.

That isn’t the case though.

I travel quite a bit for work and for pleasure. I’m usually out-of-town about once a month. For 10 days during the month of December, 2011, I was visiting family in San Diego for the holidays.  On Wednesday, December 28, 2011, I received a call from my friend in Cleveland telling me my car was towed. Flabbergasted and shocked, and having no way to immediately rectify the situation, I was left knowing I was incurring daily impound fees until  my return to Cleveland on January 3, 2012.

When I did get home on the third, I had to take a sick day off from work, and beg a friend to help me run around town to take care of a. getting a copy of my title and registration (which was in the car). b. make a trip downtown to the Justice Center to pay for the fees, and then c. drive across town again to the impound lot and retrieve my car.

The total time it took for me to finally retrieve my car was four hours.

Four hours of my time is gone because I never received the registration in the mail, thus I never wrote out a check; made the every-other-year visit to an emissions center, and waved good-bye to the previous year’s sticker by sticking the new one over the old. Four hours of my time is gone because a police officer received a random call from someone in my neighborhood about my car with its expired tags. Fours hours of my time is gone because the police department is so busy, they couldn’t have taken an extra minute to run a check on my vehicle and learn that I had no infractions in the past regarding expired registrations, and INSTEAD of making a blanket and extreme decision to have the car towed, could have excercised another option.  Four hours of my time is gone because the police officer didn’t follow up on who the caller was, and learn the caller is a random, off-kilter, mentally challenged man that has nothing better to do with his time than walk around the neighborhood and call the police department about expired registration tags. Four hours of my time is gone because my car wasn’t blocking this caller’s drive, or parked anywhere near this man lives. Four hours of my time is gone because the police officer decided to exercise his good will during the holiday season, and issue an expensive ticket, instead of issuing a warning, and then had my car towed, which as you can imagine only offered further inconvenience to me - me, the law-abiding citizen, not the criminal.

Yes, the registration was expired, and yes, this is my error, however if you check my records, I’ve never done anything like this before, so obviously, this was a case of something that had fallen through the cracks of a person with a busy life. It happens. And it happens to everyone.

The cost to register my car each is year is less than $70.00. The cost I paid to retrieve my car was $386.00.  I mentioned lessons in an earlier paragraph above. The only lesson I’ve learned from this debacle is how horrifying the system is. I’m less inclined to trust the city police department now. Why would I? No one gave me the benefit of the doubt. No one took the time to follow-up with the caller. No one took the time to check into my records. I was labeled a criminal, and received the worst punishment - remember, I’m the law-abiding citizen.  Furthermore, I feel nothin less than victimized and battered over this ordeal.  And obviously I’m distraught, because I’m taking the time to write the letter.

What to me is a fair retribution, besides an apology from the officer that exercised such extreme punishment? Based on my past record, the inconvenience this has caused me, and my lack of faith in the those that are supposed to protect me. I’d like the city of Cleveland Police Department to learn from my experience - to please keep in mind that not everyone is automatically a criminal, nor should they be treated like one. I’d like a full refund of the fees I had to pay to the city, plus the towing charges as well.  I can’t get the time I had to take off from work back, and yet I feel that you owe that to me as well.

Sincerely,

Law-Abiding, city dweller
Neve Black