Parity
FOR CITY MANAGERS — EARLY ACCESS PILOT

See how your city's ticketing practices compare to your peers.

Parity builds free, peer-benchmarked reports on parking and traffic citation practices — fine amounts, ticket volume, revenue dependency — using public records, verified with you before anything is shared any further. No obligation, no sales pitch — just a clear picture of where you stand.

Cities set fines with no idea how they compare — until a lawsuit tells them.

10%+

of general fund revenue comes from fines and fees in over 730 U.S. municipalities — the same dependency ratio investigators look at when assessing "policing for profit" risk.

It's not just legal exposure. It's how your city gets insured and priced.

Most cities don't carry standalone commercial liability insurance — they pool risk with dozens or hundreds of others through a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) or similar risk pool. Those pools already track enforcement-related liability as a distinct risk category and score members on it.

500

POOLS NATIONALLY

~500 municipal risk pools cover 80%+ of the 90,000+ public entities in the U.S. — most small-to-mid cities are insured this way, not through a standalone policy.

120+

CALIFORNIA JPIA

Based in La Palma — splits its Liability Program into "Agencies with Police Exposure" vs. without, and scores members on claims cost and severity.

2,700+

TEXAS TML POOL

Covers 2,700+ local governments for liability — enforcement risk is already priced in, city by city.

Keeping ticketing practices in line with peers is the same kind of housekeeping that shows up favorably in how your city is scored and priced by whoever insures it — and it's a defensible, evidence-backed answer if the question ever comes up publicly.

This has already played out in federal court — more than once.

FERGUSON, MO

DOJ pattern-or-practice finding

The DOJ's 2015 civil rights investigation tied ticket quotas and fee-stacking to a pattern of unconstitutional revenue collection, leading to a federal consent decree the city still operates under.

BILOXI, MS

Class-action civil rights suit

An ACLU suit alleging an unconstitutional "debtors' prison" settled in 2016 — the city adopted court-wide reforms estimated to cost roughly $344,000 a year going forward.

NEW ORLEANS, LA

Federal 14th Amendment claim

A federal class action alleged the city jailed people for unpaid court debt without an ability-to-pay hearing — the same constitutional theory now used against dozens of jurisdictions nationwide.

BROOKSIDE, AL

Small-town revenue scheme, federal ruling

A town of 1,200 saw a 600% jump in fines-and-forfeitures revenue, drew an Attorney General investigation, and made national headlines. In April 2023, a federal judge refused to dismiss the resulting class action, citing the police department's "institutional interest" in generating fees.

Worth noting: this is civil, not criminal — Section 1983 civil rights claims, DOJ civil investigations, and class actions, not criminal charges against a city. But it's still real exposure on a balance sheet: settlement costs, mandated reforms, and legal fees. Most cities that end up in this conversation didn't set out to — they just never had an easy way to see how they compared.

How it works

01

We build a benchmark

Using your city's public open data or budget filings, compared against 3–5 similar cities.

02

You verify it

We send it to you directly to check accuracy before it's shared any further.

03

You keep the report

Free, no obligation — a clear picture of where your city stands, and an early look at anything worth knowing.

Request a benchmark for your city

If you're a City Manager (or on that team), tell us who you are and we'll follow up directly — this is a hands-on pilot right now, not an automated signup.

This opens your email client addressed to hello@paritygroup.org. Prefer to just email directly? hello@paritygroup.org