by - With the decision of the Sixth Circuit Court, it has happened that drawing chalk on tires for parking control was recognized as an illegal search.
- The police in Ann Arbor, Michigan, used chalk and faced a class-action lawsuit for this practice.
- The city council recently decided to settle for $1 per case to avoid the costs of further legal proceedings.
What are your rights worth to you? In Ann Arbor, Michigan, they can be worth just one dollar. It is a depressing sum, but the Ann Arbor city council recently decided to settle a class-action lawsuit dating back to 2019. Under the agreement, anyone whose car was chalked by the Ann Arbor police department may be entitled to receive $1.
The lawsuit that prompted the agreement
According to the city, the story began with Shawn Ynnoti, who filed a class action lawsuit in federal court. He claimed that the police violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution – specifically the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures – by chalking the wheel of his car on April 6, 2019, as part of their efforts to enforce local parking rules.
More details:
Only 16 days after the incident, the Sixth Circuit Court delivered a ruling with significant implications. The court determined that “chalking tires is a search,” thus requiring either a search warrant or a proper exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.
As a result of this decision, Ann Arbor ceased chalking tires. However, the city had already violated people’s rights, and this is where the lawsuit comes into play.
A missed opportunity to recognize accountability
Ultimately, the council decided to “avoid the costs of further litigation” by agreeing to a $1 settlement per class member, along with “waivers of all claims against the city and dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice.” This is meant to allow the city to get off quite cheaply, but it doesn’t exactly discipline future unlawful police activity.
In fact, $1 seems a drop in the ocean, as the suit asked for the return of parking fines, as well as . The latter figure was the amount of the fine received by Ynnoti, and it could have been quite costly for the city, even before considering legal service costs.
