My Morning With a Parking Enforcement Officer, and Wallace

Tailing a street sweeper through Redondo with a parking enforcement officer is oddly thrilling. The officer is on a mission to ticket cars parked illegally on street-sweeping days—and the job comes with a bit of danger. 

You never quite know when someone will sprint from his house demanding the officer take pity on him "this one time." 

I've received my fair (debatable) share of parking tickets. It seems the city's gift appears on the windshield during periods of great stress—you've been fired from your job, dumped from a relationship, or had your dog die. They never seem fair, ever, especially if your illegal parking job was an honest mistake. 

Parking tickets, I think we can all agree, are the pits.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I entered Door E of City Hall, but was greeted by a smiling Municipal Officer Marco Garcia, just about to start his rounds.

Much to my surprise, a municipal officer's job in this particular department consists of both parking enforcement and animal control. This crew is multitalented. (There is even a stylin' poster of "The Gaines Guide to America's Dogs"—a chart that helps identify breeds—in the supply room at City Hall.) Garcia got into parking through his experience with animal control. He's been working for Redondo Beach for about eight years. 

We drove up and down the west side of Pacific Coast Highway, then through the side streets following the street sweeper, Wallace.

One or two cars on just about every block fell victim to ticketing.

Garcia insisted that his job isn't necessarily hard to learn. "The average person can learn parking enforcement in two weeks," he said. However, there is a lot to pay attention to at all times, including traffic and pedestrians. Plus, the street sweeper truck has a huge blind spot. Comforting.

As a parking enforcement officer, "part of your job is to give good tickets," Garcia said. In other words, not everyone deserves a ticket. There are circumstances in which judgment can be used, as when car batteries die (but even then, you may get a ticket and have to contest it). On his street-sweeping rounds, Garcia typically writes about 60 to 70 tickets.  

"It's important not to abuse your privilege. And it is a privilege," Garcia said. "We are here to serve the public, number one."

Once I got a parking ticket when I was gone from my vehicle for three minutes. Three minutes!

"The typical ticket takes 30 seconds to write,"  Garcia explained as he deftly operated his ticket machine, which resembled a giant label maker. 

Here are a few things I learned about parking enforcement in Redondo:

1. "Accidentally sleeping in" is not a good enough excuse to avoid a parking ticket. (Sorry, guy with a skateboard, I thought it was worthy.)

2. Having a handicapped placard does not exempt one from a street-cleaning-related ticket.

3. If you block more than 15 percent of a driveway, it's an automatic tow.

4. If you park in a spot with a failed meter, you don't have to pay. 

5. Once a ticket is entered into the machine there is very little chance the officer will take it back. However, you can contest a ticket at City Hall. 

6. The California vehicle code prohibits parking in the same spot for longer than 72 hours. If you notice a chalk mark that the parking enforcement officer has left on your tires, you have 72 hours from that point to move your vehicle or else it will be towed.

7. The average parking ticket costs $45.  Although, depending on the offense, it could be more.

8. Street sweeping doesn't happen on rainy days. So neither does ticketing in a street-sweeping zone.

9. Parking enforcement officers don't have a quota, but they do have a ballpark number of tickets they are expected to issue. 

10. The city is looking into getting meters that take credit cards.

One thing Garcia stressed is that he considers educating motorists to be very important. 

"I have no problem with giving someone a warning,” he said. “I make sure they know why I'm pulling up to them and what they're doing wrong." 

If he can explain to people what they need to do to keep in line with the law, he's happy to oblige and considers it part of the job.

He said he realized how infuriating it can be to get a ticket. That helps him not take angry citizens' comments personally, no matter how harsh they may be.

And they can be harsh. Garcia definitely isn't new to hostile reactions, especially people yelling.

One of Garcia's toughest situations happened near the pier. A girl came running toward him just as he stuck the ticket on her windshield. When she reached the car, she broke down sobbing and pleaded with him to take the ticket away. She was in such hysterics that he considered calling an ambulance.

That suggestion, however, seemed to calm her down, and the two were eventually able to have a rational discussion. Garcia put her situation into perspective and stressed that getting a parking ticket wasn't the end of the world.

Still, especially in these financial times, a ticket certainly can put a dent in expenses.

My advice: Make sure you are parked legally. Thirty seconds goes by quick.