Parking Citations
Writing parking citations in not high on my list of things to do at work. I really don't like to write them but when I have to I will. Today I was dispatched to one of the parks in town where there were kids soccer games going on. Someone had called in complaining about people parking in no parking zones.
When I turned into the park I saw that there were three clearly visible signs on the side of the road opposite the soccer fields that said "no parking." As I drove a little further into the park I saw cars parked on that side of the road. Traffic was backed up but I drove through the park looking to see where people had parked and where the signs were. I saw that vehicles were parked the whole length of this section of the park. I also saw that there were signs saying no parking. In fact some of the signs were hard to see because SUV's had parked directly in front of them. In some areas only one lane was getting through because of the way cars had parked.
I drove back towards the park entrance and looked again at the parking situation. People had parked with total disregard for the no parking signs so that they would not have to walk as far to the correct field. I called for another officer to come help me since there were so many cars illegally parked.
When he got there we began to write citations for parking in a no parking zone. We had several people come up to us and complain about us writing tickets. I pointed out to them that there were signs saying no parking and directed them to where there was more parking. As I was writing citations one guy pulled his mini-van in front of a no parking sign and parked right in front of me. Instead of letting him park and leave so I could write him a citation I told him he could not park there and that he needed to move, he did.
During approximately thirty minutes I wrote ten citations and the other officer wrote seven. We then left the area.
I figured it might be a good idea to write a report so the administrators would have an idea what had happened when the complaints came in. While I was writing the report dispatch called me and told me someone had called in complaining. The guy said we wrote two or three hundred citations and at $40 a piece that was $8000. He did not think the city should be making its money that way. The guy threatened to go to the media so I may make the news again. He also said he was going to file a freedom of information act request to find out how many citations were written. I hope he does that before he goes to the media so they at least have their facts correct. There sure is a big difference between seventeen citations and two hundred.
If my math is correct, and it usually isn't, for us to write two hundred tickets at two minutes per ticket we would have been out there for over an hour and a half. We weren't.
When I turned into the park I saw that there were three clearly visible signs on the side of the road opposite the soccer fields that said "no parking." As I drove a little further into the park I saw cars parked on that side of the road. Traffic was backed up but I drove through the park looking to see where people had parked and where the signs were. I saw that vehicles were parked the whole length of this section of the park. I also saw that there were signs saying no parking. In fact some of the signs were hard to see because SUV's had parked directly in front of them. In some areas only one lane was getting through because of the way cars had parked.
I drove back towards the park entrance and looked again at the parking situation. People had parked with total disregard for the no parking signs so that they would not have to walk as far to the correct field. I called for another officer to come help me since there were so many cars illegally parked.
When he got there we began to write citations for parking in a no parking zone. We had several people come up to us and complain about us writing tickets. I pointed out to them that there were signs saying no parking and directed them to where there was more parking. As I was writing citations one guy pulled his mini-van in front of a no parking sign and parked right in front of me. Instead of letting him park and leave so I could write him a citation I told him he could not park there and that he needed to move, he did.
During approximately thirty minutes I wrote ten citations and the other officer wrote seven. We then left the area.
I figured it might be a good idea to write a report so the administrators would have an idea what had happened when the complaints came in. While I was writing the report dispatch called me and told me someone had called in complaining. The guy said we wrote two or three hundred citations and at $40 a piece that was $8000. He did not think the city should be making its money that way. The guy threatened to go to the media so I may make the news again. He also said he was going to file a freedom of information act request to find out how many citations were written. I hope he does that before he goes to the media so they at least have their facts correct. There sure is a big difference between seventeen citations and two hundred.
If my math is correct, and it usually isn't, for us to write two hundred tickets at two minutes per ticket we would have been out there for over an hour and a half. We weren't.
posted by TexasCop at 21:42
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