In Baltimore City?s historic Mount Vernon neighborhood on a balmy Thursday morning, pedestrians saunter down the sidewalks as the sound of birds chirping fills the air. Gathered on the street are several city parking enforcement agents armed with electronic ticket-writing PDAs, poised to issue citations to errant motorists. Approached by a reporter seeking comment on allegations that city enforcement agents have written dozens of false parking tickets, the ticket writers scatter.

“We can?t talk to you,” says one woman, brandishing her PDA like a Taser as she walks quickly down the block.