Bike Cops Bust 4 Teens For Smoking Cigarettes In The Park
WICKER PARK — Three teenagers from Naperville were sitting on a bench in Wicker Park’s namesake park on Friday night when another teen unknown to them walked up and bummed one of their Marlboro Reds.
It was an unfortunate moment for all four; within a minute of the fourth teen lighting up, a group of bike cops swarmed the bench.
The four tickets, all issued around 8:10 p.m. Friday by three bike officers, were for violating city code 10–36–185 , which prohibits “smoking on Park District property.”
An administrative notice of violation or ANOV, the smoking tickets are part of a cluster of quality of life offenses like littering, urinating and drinking alcohol in the park. Fines range between $50-$500 and can be mailed to the city or if someone wants to contest the ticket, they could go to court.
“Respondent was observed smoking at Wicker Park,” says one of the tickets.
The young adults, all either 17 or 18, declined to have their names published. They said they were surprised that they were not warned before getting the tickets.
“They made it seem like we should have known [not to smoke in the park]. My opinion is they saw four people smoking and thought ‘this is a great opportunity’. Coming up, people are going to be fined a lot for smoking a cig in the park and are going to end up sending in a lot of money,” one teen said.
Officer Ron Westbrooks, a Chicago Police spokesman, said it’s possible the age of the young smokers had something to do with the tickets.
“There is not a targeted enforcement [against cigarette smoking in the park], that’s just what they were observed doing,” Westbrooks said.
Other people in the park were smoking cigarettes as well, the teens said.
A park rules sign at the front of the park does not include cigarette smoking among the list of things not to do in the park, located at 1425 N. Damen Ave.
Early Saturday, one of the teens followed up by email with her narrative of what happened.
“The cops that wrote us the tickets told us that there were signs at the entrances of the park that said smoking is not allowed. I believed them when they said that, even though I had not noticed any signs all previous times I’ve gone to Wicker Park. I should have asked them to show us before they wrote the tickets. But before me and my friends left, we tried to find signage around the park that said smoking is not allowed in the park. There are signs at the entrances of Wicker Park that list the things that aren’t permitted at the park, smoking is not included on that list. I’ll attach a picture below. I am in Wicker Park a lot of the time, and every single time I sit around the fountain, I see a person smoking in the park. I never even thought that it wasn’t allowed, since I constantly see others do it. I am a respectful person, and I follow the rules. If there was a clear sign anywhere that said smoking is not allowed, then of course I wouldn’t do it! We explained to the cops that we honestly had no idea that smoking isn’t allowed in Wicker Park, that it was an honest mistake and we were sorry, but they were still pretty quick to issue us each tickets. I don’t think it’s fair to punish people for something so small, and something they aren’t aware of,” she wrote.
