When Ashton Russell gets home from work, he scrambles to find a free parking spot in his Bankers Hill neighborhood.
"I spend about 15 minutes driving around and see the same cars in the same parking spots that you've seen there for a month," said Russell.
But in San Diego, cars are only allowed to be parked on the street for 72 hours without being moved. So Ashton complained to the San Diego Police Traffic Division, but nothing changed right away.
"I'd say on average I've seen it take about three to three-and-a-half weeks," said Russell.
Ashton is talking about cars getting checked and tow notices placed under the car's windshield wipers. But Traffic Division Sergeant Ruben Gutierrez says they follow-up on the hundreds of complaint they get every week.
"Typically we try to get to the complaints the day they are received," said Gutierrez. "get to the complaint and observe it for ourselves."
That means it takes more than just a neighborhood complaint to tow a car. The police do their own marking to verify a car hasn't moved and that takes time. After that, the car is given a notice to move or be towed.
Local
Sergeant Gutierrez says they do tow cars, but many of the vehicles that are being reported end up getting moved. In fact, a car only has to move one tenth of a mile and the process starts all over, even if it ends up in the same parking spot.
Ashton Russell says that means people can still take advantage of the system and freeze people out of hard-to-get parking spots.
"If the police had the ability to come out here and enforce it more often, I'm sure people would move their car more frequently," said Russell.
The traffic division that handles abandoned or 72-hour violators is made up of 5 code enforcement officers covering all of San Diego, but Sergeant Gutierrez says they are doing their job.
"We take them seriously and we do address them," said Gutierrez.
Complaints can be taken over the phone or by using this link.
