Albany police union prez will be subpoenaed in 'ghost ticket' investigation

[The Straight Story]

Albany police union prez will be subpoenaed in 'ghost ticket' investigation


The Albany Common Council voted unanimously last night to subpoena the city's police union president to testify as part of the council's investigation into the secretive, now-defunct practice of issuing "ghost" tickets to union members and other privileged city figures.

The city council has taken a tough public stance on against the practice, in which no-fine parking tickets were issued to illegally parked vehicles that happened to be marked with a bull's-eye decal or whose license plate corresponded to one on a secret "VIP" parking list.

Those bull's-eye decal stickers were issued to police union members in a practice stemming back more than a decade, according to some accounts.

Police chief James Tuffey vowed to shut down the practice when CBS 6 News learned of the VIP parking list system back in February. He said he would replace it with a stricter system of daily placard sign-outs, in which city workers who have business downtown and must park on city business will have to sign out a placard for their vehicle each day.

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/investigation_1262378___article.html/albany_union.html