Oregon Public Broadcasting

The City of Portland is telling residents that its parking police are helping improve the local air quality. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

The city auditor’s office has released a report saying that because local parking officers ticket cars with expired registrations, the local air is cleaner.

The argument goes that Portland is one of the few areas of the state where a smog inspection is required before a car can be registered.

Therefore, explains city spokesman Drummond Kahn, to be registered, a car has to be relatively clean.

Drummond Kahn: “I mean your car might not be registered because of title problems. But a likely scenario is it’s not registered because it failed the DEQ test. So this is a case where a vehicle parked otherwise legally on a Portland street, can be sited for failing to display its registration.”

Kahn says the report also found that the fine for driving an unregistered polluting car is relatively low -- about $40 -- meaning some people might choose to pay the fine rather than fix their car.