Cops decry parking tickets during court visits
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
May 19, 2009
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| Detective Mary Bonaccorsy says she’s paying $80 a week in parking tickets out of her own pocket. “My God, it’s crazy,” she says. “We’re fighting a no-win battle.” (ANDREW HARNIK/EXAMINER FILE) |
The D.C. police department’s crackdown on parking scofflaws in Judiciary Square has uncovered an unlikely culprit: D.C. police officers.
“My God, it’s crazy,” said Detective Mary Bonaccorsy, who says she’s getting about $80 in parking tickets per week. “We’re fighting a no-win battle.”
The evidence is anecdotal — D.C. police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump didn’t respond to requests for statistical information — but several cops interviewed by The Examiner say that they’re getting tagged by their fellow officers as they try to get work done in headquarters, appear before grand juries or testify in court.
“I just couldn’t believe a fellow police officer would tell me he was giving me a ticket without even let me explain some of the circumstances,” Detective Howard Howland said. “What’s the next thing they’re going to be doing? Ticketing police for jaywalking?”
Tickets have been a job hazard for several years. But officers tell The Examiner that things have gotten tougher in the last few months, with the department becoming more aggressive in handing out tickets.
“They just did it without notice,” Officer Angela Fisher said.
It comes at a time when the D.C. government is facing massive budget shortfalls. City leaders have promised to help plug holes by ... writing more tickets.
“If you’re going to have a government that’s predatory and decide to make traffic tickets and parking tickets a major source of revenue, then you do it to everybody,” said Gary Imhoff, publisher of the reformist online newsletter D.C. Watch. “The other side is that police who are attending court need a place to park so they’re not running to the meters all the time.”
It’s a raw issue for D.C. cops because they’re required to go to court. The construction on the D.C. Court of Appeals building has encroached on the street, and there are few places to park.
The illegal parking clogs traffic even further in a neighborhood that’s already hard to maneuver through.
Mayoral spokeswoman Mafara Hobson didn’t return calls seeking comment. Mayor Adrian Fenty told a local television station that he was building parking lots for the officers.
Police union Chairman Kris Baumann said his officers have heard that for years.
“If he can’t fix this,” Baumann asked, “what can he fix?”
