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Stressed out about that pile of unpaid parking tickets? The Madison Police Department is offering to make it easier Sunday at its first “Unpaid Ticket Resolution Day.”

Police Chief Mike Koval emphasized in a blog post Tuesday that the event is not an amnesty but a way for scofflaws to talk to police and staff from the City Attorney’s Office to come up with an alternative plan to pay off the debt, including setting up payment plans or getting the fines reduced.

The idea emerged from a 2015 neighborhood forum where, Koval said, “I learned that in addition to the despondency that results from poverty, there also is palpable fear” that unpaid tickets could result in an arrest, or of getting pulled over and not being able to go to work because of suspended license plates for unpaid tickets.

“These were distressing conversations,” Koval wrote. “How could the department offer some relief to those who want to be law-abiding but have fallen behind?”

Koval said he found inspiration in his Catholic upbringing.

“Pope Francis’ declaration of 2016 as the year of mercy resonated with me,” Koval said. “It prompted me to ask what mechanism or mechanisms could we draw from as a police department, that could offer some measure of mercy.”