How To Put HPD Parking Enforcers In Harm's Way, HPD Style

 

The new paid parking system that the Hudson Police Department, the mayor's office and the common council have fully embraced has forced parking enforcers off of the sidewalks and into the streets.  With parking meters gone, there is little reason for enforcers to spend most of their time on the sidewalk, as they used to do until recently.  They can't spend a majority of their time on the sidewalk because there's nothing there anymore to assist them in issuing parking tickets.  This is beyond stupid and dangerous.  This is no improvement; this is a dangerous step or two backwards. 

"I DIDN'T SEE HIM STANDING DIRECTLY BEHIND MY TRUCK.  I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS THERE. HE WAS WEARING BLACK AND STANDING IN FRONT OF A BLACK CAR.  WHAT WAS HE STANDING THERE FOR? 

I'M SO SORRY.  IS HE GOING TO LIVE?"

or

"I DON'T KNOW, OFFICER, I WAS DRIVING ALONG AND HE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE.  I MUST HAVE BEEN DRIVING A LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO THAT PARKED CAR HE WAS WALKING NEXT TO. HE WAS WEARING BLACK, SO I GUESS I JUST DIDN'T SEE HIM.  IS HE GOING TO BE OKAY?  WILL HE LIVE?

In 2014, when I was a Hudson parking enforcer, had I been told that I had to scan every license plate of every parked car, I would have responded, "No thank you.  Go find someone else to kill or maim who you don't care about.  I'm not that stupid or desperate."

There are two unsafe things that parking enforcers have been forced to do beginning this year.  First, they stand in the street behind, in front of, and in between parked vehicles scanning license plates and fiddling with their ticket machines, paying little to no attention to what is going on around them.  This is what they have been told to do -- STAND IN THE STREET AND DO YOUR WORK, EVEN BETWEEN PARKED CARS! 

Second, enforcers typically walk from parked car to parked car (sometimes passing unoccupied spaces, of course) not on the sidewalk but in the street inches or a foot or two from moving vehicles, some quite fast. (Enforcers also scan registration stickers instead of plates.  This also forces them to be near traffic and not paying attention to it.)  This, I suppose, is not so much forced on enforcers as it is a choice they make to save time and effort.  Why should enforcers step on and off the curb constantly throughout the day when walking in the street is an option that Parking Captain David Miller hasn't told them they cannot do?  Prior to this year, the only time an enforcer had to step off a sidewalk to approach a parked vehicle was to ticket it.  No enforcers ever had to stand in the street looking at their handheld ticket machine wondering if a parked car needed to be issued a ticket.  For decades the process was as follows:  Print parking ticket while standing on the sidewalk, step off curb, walk to the driver's side of the car while PAYING ATTENTION TO TRAFFIC INCHES AND FEET AWAY, place ticket under wiper, return to sidewalk to check more meters.  Now, though, putting city employees in harm's way is part of Miller's "great" new paid parking system.  Sooner or later, if things don't change, a HPD parking enforcer will get struck by a moving vehicle (though I hope it doesn't happen).  The conditions are ripe for it. 

And when a parking enforcer does finally get struck by a vehicle or e-bike travelling 25 miles per hour, what will the response and explanation be from HPD's top brass, possibly Parking Captain David Miller himself?  

"Well, being struck by a moving vehicle is just one of the hazards of the difficult job our enforcers do, albeit a relatively new one.  They spend a lot of time standing and walking unprotected on our busy streets doing their best to issue parking tickets so the city can make lots of money.  There was no way we could prevent this tragedy.  We can't go back to the parking meter days when things were safer for parking enforcers who mainly walked on our sidewalks.  We weren't making enough money with the meters.  That system was barbaric. * 

We will miss John very much, as will his family.  He served this city well.  We're looking for a replacement for him as I speak.  What can I say?  While this was a tragedy, it wasn't preventable.  Heck, even I expected it to happen eventually.  I'm just thankful it wasn't me who got run over and killed by a speeding vehicle while trying to issue a ten-dollar parking ticket to a parked car.

John's funeral is tomorrow.  Please pay your respects.  If you know anyone who is looking for a part-time job, please let me know."

* (At the Safety Committee meeting this past March, Miller actually referred to the former paid parking system as "barbaric.")