KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A 10News investigation shows that millions of dollars are owed to the city of Knoxville in unpaid and uncollected parking tickets.
How city officials will recoup that money and fix a flawed system, however, remains unclear.
According to data requested this spring by Channel 10 and provided by the Knoxville Municipal Court, the $4,525,729.25 owed includes 429,800 unpaid tickets.
WBIR sought the data in early 2024 to learn more about the volume of parking tickets – paid and unpaid – in the city system.
The amount owed to the city is about 2.5 times the size of the Municipal Court's yearly budget, Municipal Court Judge Tyler Caviness said.
Multiple agencies are involved in ticketing and parking enforcement downtown.
Parking fines and fees are paid to the Knoxville Municipal Court. Caviness, elected in November, said a "lack of unity" between agencies has contributed to such large numbers.
“I think the biggest thing now moving forward is recognizing who some of the stakeholders are in this process and getting them all in a room together to talk about it," Caviness said.
In addition to managing various buildings, the Public Building Authority, or PBA, is responsible for ticketing downtown, Caviness said.
Former Municipal Court Judge John Rosson served on the city court for over 30 years. The amount of unpaid tickets swelled while he was on the bench.
But, Rosson, said, the millions of dollars that have accumulated over the years is not the court's responsibility.
"It's not a judicial problem," he said. "Judges can make rulings but that's the end of what judges do."
Rosson, who lost to Caviness in the November race, explained that a lack of leverage could contribute to people not paying their tickets.
"The type of fines that do get paid is when the government has leverage...and I use that term loosely," he said.
Other violations, like speeding tickets, can threaten a driver's license, Rosson explained. That can motivate drivers to pay certain types of ticket fees, he said.
Legally, law enforcement would be responsible for towing drivers with parking violations, Caviness and Rosson said.
But KPD doesn't allocate resources to monitor parking downtown, a spokesman said.
"Our department does not devote resources specifically to monitoring and enforcing parking violations in the downtown area," Scott Erland said in a statement to WBIR. "PBA is primarily responsible for that. KPD officers maintain an active and visible presence in downtown Knoxville. Our goal, first and foremost, is to positively affect crime, reduce persistent quality of life issues that impact downtown residents, visitors and businesses, and keep people safe."
Caviness and Rosson said PBA is only authorized to write parking tickets. And they write thousands every year, figures show.
The city is also involved.
"Thousands of downtown employees, residents and visitors follow the rules and pay their fair share when they park," a spokesman for the city said in a statement to WBIR. "Some individuals choose to park illegally, get ticketed and not pay. It’s especially unfair and egregious when a handful of individuals rack up and then ignore dozens of parking tickets. The City is continuing to analyze the parking consultants’ recommendations from May, which did include suggestions related to enforcement and collections."
A consulting firm hired by the city issued a report in May that recommended many changes to how Knoxville handles parking. It also noted a lack of clarity and accountability in how the system operates and is monitored.
No one agency is fully responsible for all aspects of parking downtown. That's created a challenging situation to address, Caviness said.
"I'm dedicated to recognizing that this is a problem," he told WBIR. "We shouldn't have let it get this far, but now that we're here, we have to think about what we're going to do to solve it."
The city could sue the top offenders, Rosson said, but it would require a lot of government resources.
"Just imagine the busy work that would be involved in it," he said.
WBIR's investigation found that almost 430,000 people have outstanding parking tickets with the city, going back years.
Efficiently collecting money from hundreds of thousands of people is not realistic, Rosson said.
Caviness said his office is committed to trying to address the outstanding balance in some way.
Our investigation identified the top 10 offenders who owe money to the city. The top offender owes over $13,000. Others owe many thousands of dollars.
Even in 2024, many have racked up thousands of dollars in unpaid tickets and fees, records show.
The data reflects license plate numbers of those ticketed. According to the state of Tennessee, the specific owners of the license plates associated with those vehicles is not public record under state law.
Offenders like these are the court's biggest concern, Caviness said.
"Those are the people who have these really shocking outstanding balances with the court and those are the people who are going to be prioritized when it comes to collections," Caviness said.
No official collections process has been started yet for these tickets, Caviness said.