Parking Tickets In Troy Have All But Disappeared

Vol. III, No. 243 - Monthly data from the Troy Police Department shows parking enforcement has nearly stopped

When you look at the numbers coming from the Troy Police Department, a quiet story begins to unfold. For several years, Troy’s parking ticket activity has been falling, step by steady step, until almost nothing remains. In May 2021, parking enforcemene efforts led to 120 parking tickets and the city collected more than two thousand dollars in fines. By the end of 2025, those numbers had collapsed. In December, only one ticket was written and just one hundred dollars in revenue came in — the lowest total in nearly five years of records.

Through most of 2021 and 2022, parking enforcement looked normal. Dozens of tickets were being written every month, and most of them were being paid. Downtown Troy’s curbs were watched closely, and the city collected between two and three thousand dollars a month from people who overstayed their meters. There was enough activity to remind drivers that time limits mattered.

By 2023, the pattern began to shift. The number of tickets started to dip. Some months were still busy, but the totals no longer held steady. The following year brought an even sharper decline. After a burst of tickets early in 2024, parking enforcement seemed to lose momentum. As the months went on, the number of tickets written fell into the single digits. By autumn, it was hard to tell if parking enforcement was occurring at all. Revenue dropped right along with the numbers, signaling that fewer people were being cited and even fewer were paying.

The most recent data from 2025 shows that enforcement has all but stopped. Fewer citations were written each month, with December 2025 showing just one parking ticket. The result is that the city, which once collected a steady stream of small fines, now receives almost nothing from parking violations. The sharp decline raises an obvious question: what happened to parking enforcement in Troy?

Around town, there has been little conversation about it. Residents seem to have accepted the quiet change, or perhaps many haven’t noticed it at all. There has been no major announcement from the city and no heated debate on social media or in public meetings. In daily life, it appears that people can park downtown without fear of receiving a ticket. For those who once kept an eye on the clock during lunch or errands, that’s a noticeable shift in local habits.

Some may see the drop in enforcement as a sign that Troy’s parking problems have eased. Others might wonder whether the lack of oversight could eventually lead to congestion or unfair use of limited spaces. Whatever the cause, the disappearance of parking tickets suggests a broader story. When routine enforcement fades away without much notice or discussion, it can show how easily everyday systems drift from attention. Perhaps past efforts at parking enforcement created more problems than it intended to solve.

The data points to a downtwon where parking rules exist mostly on paper, rarely enforced and more importantly — rarely talked about. For now, Troy’s parking enforcement gleefully slips away with fewer and fewer fines being paid.

The numbers tell a simple truth: in Troy, parking enforcement has nearly vanished and no one seems to have noticed.

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