David Goldstein Reports

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― If you drive in L.A., chances are you have found one on your windshield -- a parking ticket. But are they all valid?

Denise Allen received one last year, when the traffic enforcement officer claimed her meter had expired.

"I looked at the meter and saw 11 minutes left. I couldn't believe that I got a ticket for an expired meter," Allen said. 

She claims she took this picture two minutes later.

"Either this police officer was lying or he has serious vision problems. Either way, he should not be reading meters," Allen said.

And she is not alone.

We searched through 4.5 million tickets written from October 2007 through April 2009.

 Find Out Where The Most Tickets Are Written In L.A.

We found that more than 124,000 were issued to innocent drivers. That amounts to nearly $6 million of tickets that were eventually dismissed after drivers fought the citations and won!

Some of them were thrown out by Judith Segall, an administrative hearing officer who hears from motorists, who contest tickets.

David Goldstein: "Do you find situations where clearly the ticket was given out erroneously?"

Judith Segall: "Have I found? Yeah, I have. I believe that it's been given out erroneously. I can't always know that for sure."

But while she is not sure, there are things she says that make her suspicious.

"When I see that it's always the same kind of violation by the same officer," Segall said.

The Department of Transportation says an acceptable level of tickets dismissed is around 3 percent. But we found more than 175 officers above that limit -- some two or three times more.

We ran the numbers for officers writing more than 1,000 tickets and found one parking enforcement officer with nearly 12 percent of his tickets dismissed. That's four times the accepted level, 604 citations -- $17,250 in fines -- issued to drivers, who fought and won!

Another officer had more than 10 percent of her tickets dismissed. Another one more than a thousand tickets overturned, 7.5 percent -- $81,000 in fines -- dismissed!

"That's way too much," said Zach Behrens.

Zach Behrens runs LAist, a Web site where people vent about issues like parking tickets.

"I never thought it would be this high. I could imagine maybe a couple of hundred, but when you get into the thousands or past 500, that seems like there is a problem there," Behrens said.

I presented six pages of officers with dismissal rates above three percent to Parking Enforcement Chief Jimmy Price. But he doesn't believe there is a problem.

David Goldstein: "Are people out there that may be getting tickets that shouldn't be getting them?"

Jimmy Price: "No."

David Goldstein: "Not at all."

Jimmy Price: "Not to the best of my knowledge."

He says many tickets that end up being dismissed are initially valid, like expired tags, but are thrown out after drivers produce documentation.

However Chief DOT Analyst Robert Andalon says he would be interested in hearing from people like Segall if they suspect any wrongdoings.

"I think some of the details you've shared; I've never been exposed to. That would have been good to know," Andalon said.

After our investigation he says they plan on increasing communication between hearing officers and the city.

But it all starts with drivers contesting tickets. That's what Denise Allen did. And she finally won.

"I was happy that they sided with me. But I was so frustrated that I wasn't getting anywhere to have an investigation into a police officer that obviously lied," Allen said.

 Find Out Where The Most Tickets Are Written In L.A.
 Contest A Parking Ticket Received In L.A.

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