Grand jury report criticizes Oakland over ticketing of stolen vehicles
The city of Oakland has issued hundreds of tickets to abandoned vehicles that were reported stolen, creating a problem for both the victims of the crime and the city, according to an Alameda County Civil Grand Jury report released at the end of June.
The civil grand jury, a panel convened annually in each county around the state to investigate and report on local government operations, found that parking tickets generate a lot of revenue for a city struggling financially.
In fiscal year 2023-24, the Oakland Department of Transportation collected $14.2 million in fines for parking tickets. But issuing tickets to vehicles whose owners reported them stolen adds "insult to injury" to someone whose car ended up abandoned by a fire hydrant through no fault of their own, the jury found. Penalties for late payments compound the problem.
"While most vehicle owners become aware that their vehicle has received a ticket when they find a ticket on their windshield, this is often not the case for victims of vehicle theft," .
Victims of car theft who are ticketed are able to dispute the ticket or tickets by showing a police report, the jury said, which they found was an unnecessary hoop for people to have to jump through. It also costs the city money to process dismissed tickets.
According to the jury, 9,400 vehicles were reported stolen in Oakland in 2024.
"In fact, according to the highway patrol, more stolen vehicles were recovered in Oakland in 2023 than in any other California city except Los Angeles," the report reads.
These numbers don't reflect the thousands of stolen Oakland vehicles recovered elsewhere, as well.
Data shared in the report showed that between 2022 and 2024, 1,559 stolen cars were ticketed at least once, with 2,703 tickets dismissed—numbers that show that many cars had been given multiple tickets and fines.
"These numbers only reflect the instances where the victim sought to have the ticket dismissed," said the report. "Because it is possible that some victims did not seek dismissal, the number of stolen vehicles that receive tickets may be higher."
The jury pointed to how parking enforcement officers in San Francisco handle the problem as a possible solution for Oakland.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in 2023 made an arrangement with the city's database of stolen cars that links to the hand-held devices that enforcement officers use when they vet vehicles. Once a license plate is entered into their system, they receive a message that says the vehicle cannot be ticketed.
The civil grand jury found that were Oakland to adopt a similar approach, it could be done in as little as six months "at little or no cost."
"If OakDOT could immediately identify a parked stolen vehicle, it would be beneficial not only to the vehicle owner but also would save the city time and money by not having to rescind and dismiss tickets," the jury concluded.
The Oakland City Council, the mayor, and the director of OakDOT are required to respond to the civil grand jury's report by Sept. 24.
