Beaufort parking ticket prompts class action complaint. Can cities privatize enforcement?
As for-profit companies are increasingly used to police paid parking on public streets and in public lots, their authority has become a contested issue.
Lawsuits have been filed questioning who should be dipping their hands in visitor’s pockets for fees and fines.
This is not a Beaufort County issue alone. Three South Carolina communities, including the city of Beaufort where privatized parking operations are in place, have been hit with legal action to determine where the line should be drawn between outsourcing of enforcement to for-profit companies versus having the town’s police or code enforcement department handle the responsibilities.
The separate lawsuits, filed last month against the coastal communities of Beaufort, Isle of Palms and Folly Beach, seek a ruling to determine whether a private contractor can collect and fine for parking.
Hilton Head Island’s new paid parking ordinance only went into affect March 1 so it’s too soon to tell if legal action will result. According to the town, they have put steps in place to avoid what is happening in the three municipalities currently facing legal action.
What’s the dispute about?
At issue is whether the hiring by municipalities of private entities to enforce parking ordinances and collect parking tickets is an unlawful delegation of police powers.
Miranda Black, an Orangeburg County woman who received a $125 fine in Beaufort, claims it is.
She filed a class action complaint in the Court of Common Pleas in February against the city of Beaufort. SP Plus, the largest parking network in North America, enforces parking violations and monitors some 500 parking spaces in the city under the name of Park Beaufort. Parking technology provider Metropolis acquired SP Plus last year. SP Plus and Metropolis also were named as defendants.
Black says she filed the lawsuit on behalf of others who have paid fines as well in the past few years. Black wants the court to declare that only a municipality and its police force may regulate parking. She is also asking that the parking fines that were collected be refunded.
The lawsuit was filed just a few days after Kevin Smith and Hunter Summey of Charleston County filed a civil lawsuit against the cities of Isle of Palms and Folly Beach and PCI Municipal Services LLC in Charleston County, challenging the legality of the parking tickets by PCI Municipal, according to the Post-Courier in Charleston.
The Beaufort lawsuit claims private companies have incentive to issue tickets as they retain a percentage of the gross parking revenue.
Ashley Brandon, a spokesperson for the city of Beaufort, and a Metropolis Technologies spokesperson, said they would not comment on the pending litigation.
The state’s AG’s office has spoken on the issue
In November, the South Carolina Attorney General weighed in on who has the jurisdiction to issue parking citations in the state. The Beaufort lawsuit points to that opinion, which was delivered Nov. 15 opinion by Asst. Attorney General Cydney Milling.
“Parking enforcement involves the exercise of a municipalities police powers,” the opinion says. “Based on prior opinions of this Office, police power may not be delegated to private entities absent legislative or constitutional authority. Finding no such authority, we do not believe a municipality may delegate parking enforcement to a private entity.”
However, attorney general opinions are advisory only, not binding.
The opinion was requested by state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, who represents Berkeley and Charleston counties. His request followed months of beach parking controversy in Folly Beach and Isle of Palms 80-100 miles or so up the coast from Beaufort.
It was the Charleston Beach Foundation that contacted Grooms about their concerns after PCI Municipal Services took over parking enforcement and management on the Isle of Palms on March 1.
The city of Folly Beach and the town of Hilton Head Island also have contracts with PCI.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 1:12 PM.
