Kingswood Civic Association

Officials Step Up Enforcement of Parking Regulations in Prince G

More Boots on the Ground
Officials Step Up Enforcement of Parking Regulations in Prince George's

By James Hohmann
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 17, 2008; PG01

 

Now more than ever, Robert Pettis might be one of the most unpopular men in Prince George's County.

He wears a badge and a uniform, but he is not a cop. He is an officer of the Revenue Authority, and he is on the front lines of an effort to get tough on long-ignored parking laws by writing more tickets and putting boots on the vehicles of drivers who don't pay up.

In the Washington region, the District has long been the model of stringent -- or nitpicky, some of those ticketed would say -- code enforcement. In Prince George's, however, some people realized that they could get away with a lot more. Many who received citations let them accumulate because authorities did little to follow up.

That's changing. Fifteen enforcers are handing out an estimated 6,000 traffic-related citations every month, and officials said last month that they hope to increase the number.

Pettis, 25, roams the roads at random, often handing out dozens of tickets during a shift. Name any profanity, and he probably has heard it in the line of duty.

"People don't like us," he said on a recent day during his rounds. "It doesn't bother me at all."

Not everyone despises him. Community leaders who have struggled to get police to pay more attention to parking violations and similar nuisances welcome a promise to crack down.

Gloria Smith of Avondale said illegal parking has become more prevalent in the past five years. She recently volunteered for a neighborhood code enforcement team, and she said she sees an uphill battle ahead.

But county residents who are being ticketed for parking the same way they have for decades are befuddled, and sometimes hostile. Common practices that are illegal include parking on the wrong side of the road or on the unpaved public right of way along residential streets.

Pettis, who has been on the force for a year, tries to avoid confrontations. When someone being ticketed runs out of a house to chew him out, he might stop writing the citation and leave. But he will be back.

In January, to put teeth into enforcement, officers began booting vehicles whose drivers had two or more tickets at least 90 days overdue.

Officials insist the new approach is not about raising revenue. They say the effort is a centerpiece of the county's Livable Communities Initiative, a bid to improve the quality of life by sending the message that all laws, however minor, must be followed.

"We're trying to change the way people think," said Angela D. Alsobrooks, who runs the Revenue Authority.

So far, she said, it's working.

Troy Thompson, who is director of parking operations at the Revenue Authority and is responsible for making the rounds at town hall meetings, said about $400,000 of $18 million in outstanding tickets has been collected since January. Someone who owed $18,000 in tickets paid up, he said, as did two who owed $15,000 each.

It often takes more than a verbal warning to make clear that the enforcement effort is not a publicity stunt, Pettis said. People revert to old habits. After he has given someone a warning, he said, he feels no qualms about circling back to slide one of the light green envelopes under the windshield wiper of that person's vehicle.

Back at the office in Largo, mounted on the wall behind Thompson's desk is a framed photograph of the words "No Parking" spray-painted in yellow on asphalt.

Thompson said those who park illegally are often intertwined with criminal elements. Bank robbers might park in a fire lane, he said, adding that psychologists have found that people who park illegally in handicapped spaces develop a mind-set that they can get away with much more.

Pettis's stock reply when approached by an angry driver is that he is just doing his job.

In Bladensburg, when the driver of a Chevy Impala was ticketed for being parked half on the grass, he said he was afraid that parking legally would leave his car vulnerable to being hit by a speeding vehicle on the narrow street. After hearing him out, Pettis explained that it is illegal to park on unpaved land unless the property is larger than one acre. Cursing up a storm, the guy grabbed his ticket and stomped away.

Tickets, and the resulting $50 fine, for parking against the flow of traffic seem to prompt the most anger. The fuming ticketed owner of a Pontiac Grand Prix, trailed by his wife, told Pettis that he has been parking that way for 40 years.

The parking enforcers troll the streets six days a week, including Saturdays. They work Sundays only for special events, such as a home Redskins game.

Thanks to the new enforcement strategy, and with an assist from technology, more cars are getting the boot.

Two Ford Explorers packed with $100,000 worth of equipment scan license plate numbers as officers patrol. The numbers are compared with computer records of vehicles with unpaid tickets. When the camera spots a "boot eligible" vehicle, it emits a sound akin to that of a ray gun in a 1960s sci-fi movie.

The sensitive contraption can give a lot of false alarms, picking up numbers on mailboxes or the reflection of a chain-link fence.

At a shopping mall in Largo, its alarm sounded after a scan of the tags on a black station wagon. As Pettis wiggled a boot onto the car's tire, the owner exited Office Depot.

"Hey," he yelled. "I don't got no tickets."

Pettis invited him to the passenger-side window and showed details of two citations.

Unlike in the District, where a city employee must manually remove the clunky contraptions meant to immobilize violators' vehicles, Prince George's uses a "smart boot" that allows drivers to remove the devices by punching in a code given to them after they settle their balances by phone.

They have three days to return the 14-pound boot to a depot in New Carrollton. A few people have managed to get the boots off without paying, Pettis said.

Imani Kazana, president of the Avondale/North Woodridge Citizens Association, sounded exasperated as she talked about parking troubles in her neighborhood. There are the stolen cars left untouched for months and the tow truck driver who parks his rig on a narrow street.

The 4-foot-11, 62-year-old Kazana once had "words" with three burly men who stored their "humongous" trailer on the street for months. When they ignored her complaints, and the person on the other end of the non-emergency police hotline never followed up, she took her beef to the district police commander. About a month later, she said, the truck was gone.

Now, with the Revenue Authority taking such concerns seriously, she sends e-mails to Thompson with photos of offending vehicles. If they land in his inbox between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on a weekday, Thompson says, he tries to get an enforcer to the scene within an hour.

"We're elated," Kazana said, "by someone who returns calls or e-mails."