Officials say they are not reducing efforts to track down delinquents among the 12 million outstanding parking summonses in the bureau's computers.

Since he made a big deal about foreign scofflaws, the number of parking summonses slapped on diplomats' cars has gone down - way down.

Russia, long the scofflaw king, received a staggering 32,350 parking summonses in 1996.

A woman called out that while taking a walk during her lunch break, she heard snippets of civil unrest over a fresh parking summons.

He said they have been assigned to collect a total of $90 million in outstanding parking summonses.

By May, he said, several more private concerns will be assigned to collect $160 million more in outstanding parking summonses.

Since the policy took effect, the police said, the number of parking summonses they issue has increased, although they had no specific numbers.

But with the signs gone, there can be no parking summonses.

The city issued 11.1 million parking summonses last year.

The Department of Finance, they note, hopes to raise over $346 million from parking summonses in 1996, up from $290 million last year.