COLORADO SPRINGS – In our continuing coverage, we’re taking a closer look at how the RV ban is affecting Colorado Springs and what police officers are seeing as they respond to complaints.
It’s been nearly two weeks since the RV ban went into effect in Colorado Springs.
Though a cluster or RVs isn’t easy to spot anymore, some can still be seen on residential city streets donning a bright green sticker: a warning to move or get a ticket.
Colorado Springs Police officers are keeping track of them.
“So an officer will build a call screen, basically a reminder,” explained Lt. James Sokolik, a spokesperson for Colorado Springs Police Department.
“And it won’t necessarily be that same officer that goes out but the dispatch will send an officer out to that address to see if it’s still there.”
Owners get a three-day warning period before getting a ticket.
The first is $25, the second $100, the third is $125 and a fourth could mean losing their RV altogether.
“There’s that financial aspect to that,” Sokolik pointed out.
“And if eventually, they don’t respond to that financial aspect, then that vehicle will be impounded.”
Though, these could also include multiple tickets in reference to the same RV if that owner gets more than one ticket.
But in many cases, Sokolik the warning has worked.
“Officers went out and that vehicle had moved,” he said.
“So that vehicle, it had done what we wanted it to do – has done what the law is trying to accomplish.”
But even if the vehicle moves, its violations follow.
And if the owner get another ticket, it picks up where their last one left off.
“They have to meet the requirement of the law and that’s what we enforce,” Sokolik emphasized.
“It’s not a matter of finding loopholes, or looking for loopholes. Whatever the law says, that’s what we’re enforcing.”
The RV ban applies to every RV in the city, whether someone is living in it or not.
Some neighbors are complaining about people trading in their RVs and now living in cars.
Police say that’s hard to track, but as the numbers show, they do look into every abandoned vehicle complaint.
