Chalk it up to bad policing of parking violators?

It’s an issue on constitutionality that won’t get wiped away. Is it ever OK for a parking enforcement officer to place chalk marks on a car tire when scouring for illegally parked vehicles?

SFGate.com’s recent reporting on two ongoing lawsuits in San Francisco that aim to challenge the practice tells of a 2019 federal appeals court ruling that found chalking to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Trespassing upon a privately owned vehicle parked on a public street to place a chalk mark to begin gathering information to ultimately impose a government sanction is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment," one of the San Francisco filings state, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

A similar lawsuit was filed in San Diego in 2019, although that decision ruled that chalking was not unconstitutional, according to media reports.

So will the infamous practice go away and will the lawsuits keep a’coming? The Chronicle says maybe, and that technology might replace the simple, litigation-ready act of marking a private vehicle’s tire with chalk.