Nearly 100,000 traffic tickets expire from SPD shortages, millions taken from city budget

Nearly 100,00 automatic traffic tickets in Seattle not reviewed by the Seattle Police Department have now expired.

According to a report from the Seattle Times, that means about $4.3 million dollars taken out of the city’s budget.

These are tickets issued to drivers speeding through school zones or caught by red light cameras.

According to SPD, 14% of tickets expired between January 2021 and August 2021. In that same period, 28% were reviewed and rejected, and 59% ended with a citation.

Between Jan. and Aug. 2022, 16% of tickets expired.

But SPD says the number of expired tickets in 2023 was only 3%.

SPD says because of staffing shortages, it hasn’t had the bandwidth to manage those tickets before they expired.

This comes after an issue with parking tickets in 2022 when about 100,000 parking tickets were voided because of lapsed authority and the job of parking enforcement was transferred from SPD to the Seattle Department of Transportation.

That issue cost the city nearly $5 million dollars.

Because of the loss of millions, The Seattle Mayor’s Office says if approved by the city council, SDOT’s Americans with Disabilities Act Program will take the biggest hit.

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