True Story

Yesterday morning in the 300 block of Warren Street, I noticed a very young HPD officer with a parking ticket machine in hand, his police bicycle and a parked car nearby, while talking to someone about a ticket that the machine had just printed.  At first, I thought the ununiformed person was the owner of the vehicle getting the ticket, but he was not.  That person turned out to be the newest HPD parking enforcer, in training.  I thought it was really odd (and potentially interesting) that the new hire was not being trained by a HPD parking enforcer, but rather a police officer, so I stood nearby and listened.

The trainer placed the ticket on the windshield of the car, the trainee observed, and the two moved on together to a car parked a few metered spaces away.  That car's meter, as I had already noticed, was flashing FAIL, which meant it was not working properly.  (Along with a blank screen, DEAD and FAIL are common displays found on out of service meters [which are quite common!], likely due to a dead battery, a jammed coin, or being completely full of quarters).  The HPD officer was puzzled by the display on the meter, shrugging his shoulders to the trainee, who responded in kind.  The officer asked the trainee to wait a moment, then pulled out his cell phone.  I knew exactly what the issue was, and it did not surprise me one bit.  I was already chuckling. 

The HPD officer training our newest potential parking enforcer had no idea what to do about a car parked in a space with a meter flashing FAIL.  Issue a ticket?  Move on?  What does FAIL mean?  Yes, the trainer and trainee were equally unfamiliar with the display commonly found on inoperable meters!  

After about 30 seconds on the phone to the HPD station, the officer told the trainee that FAIL meant that the meter was out of order, and no parking ticket was to be issued.  The trainee nodded his head, but looked a bit unimpressed. They moved on.

Regardless of that encounter, my gut says that the trainee I saw yesterday will not last very long on the job.  Just a hunch.  I hope he does stick around a while, because the city needs a third enforcer, but I doubt he's the enforcer we are looking for.