580 Vehicles Ticketed During Snow Emergency in Dearborn

A snow emergency called Wednesday evening in Dearborn and lasting until 3 p.m. Thursday resulted in 580 citations for improper parking on streets, the Dearborn Police Department confirmed Friday.

When a snow emergency is called, residents are required to park their vehicles off of the streets in order to allow for efficient and effective snow plowing by city plows.

However, according to residents, there are often still cars left on the streets in many neighborhoods during these times.

“I hope the restriction is enforced,” Patch reader Pam commented. “It really causes problems on the street when the plow has to go around these vehicles.”

Dearborn Chief of Police Ronald Haddad shared that officers were out issuing citations between 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday.

According to a department statement, “officers were given a residential section map and directed to cite all vehicles found in violation on the emergency routes first, then to fan out into the neighborhoods and cite complaint areas. Officers were asked to use a great deal of discretion with our residents attempting to comply with removing their vehicles from the public streets.”

The compliance rate, according to the department, was around 60-70 percent on emergency routes and around 30-40 percent on neighborhood streets.

Of the 580 citations written, 378 were in east Dearborn; 202 were in west Dearborn.

The City of Dearborn responded to some resident questions about plowing on the Dearborn Patch Facebook page:

The City of Dearborn would like to thank all of the residents who moved their parked vehicles off the streets and helped our crews with safety and efficiency. Hopefully, all residents will get back in the routine with the second snowfall. We sounded the sirens at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. so that no one would need to move their vehicles in the early morning hours when the crews began. The 4 a.m. start was chosen for several reasons: public safety, the rate of the snowfall, wise use of personnel in the best timeframe (snowplow drivers have hourly limits for safety reasons), and a shift scheduled to best manage overtime costs and minimize residents' inconvenience. Crews were out salting on Wednesday afternoon and into the evening. Snowplows work best after three inches of snow. Dearborn has 266 miles of local roads to plow. Wayne County takes care of major roads, as well as the state roads. If you ever think your neighborhood road was inadvertently missed, call DPW at 313-943-2107.

Both the Dearborn Police Department and city stressed that residents should utilize a number of options to stay abreast of snow emergencies in order to move their cars at the appropriate times:

• Sign up for Nixle alerts, which send an email and text message to users from the police department for such issues as road closures, crime alerts, and snow emergencies. Sign up at Nixle.com, and for further instructions, see the PDF attached to this article.
• Call the city’s Snow Plowing hotline at 313-943-2444.
• Watch CDTV and check local media—including Dearborn Patch and the Dearborn Press and Guide, as well as some regional media outlets—which always publicize snow emergencies.
• Follow the City of Dearborn on Facebook and Twitter.
• Lastly, listen for the sirens, which go off at the start of a snow emergency.

Want to make sure you know when a snow emergency is called in Dearborn? Sign up for newsletter and breaking news alerts from Dearborn Patch. We will issue an alert when the emergency is called, and inform you when it’s over.