She Writes the Parking Tickets

For the past 7 1/2 years, Sandra Mulligan has been one of those Walnut Creek police services officers who ride around in a white-and-blue scooter and check on whether your  parking meter has run out. Yes, Mulligan, now a lead police services officer, issues parking tickets, and she knows that giving out tickets sometimes ticks people off.

But it's all part of the city's effort to keep motorists from hogging spaces and to make as many city parking spaces available as possible, Mulligan says. (City spaces on the street and in public lots should not be confused with spaces in private lots and garages; private companies enforce parking in those lots.)

Her duties also involve a lot more than issuing tickets for expired meters. 

Here Mulligan—with her supervisor Ricco Lorenzi—explains her serendipitous route into the world of parking enforcement. The two also share some downtown parking horror stories, explain that they are not in this job to "rack up tickets" and reveal ways you can park downtown—and not get one of their tickets.

WCPatch: How did you get into this job?
Mulligan: I was totally new to law enforcement. My background is in human relations and personnel management. I did that until I was a mom. After that I worked for Weight Watchers. I came into the PD and did a Weight Watcher group for the whole police department.  When the position came open, they knew a little bit about me.

After being out of the personnel field for so long, it seemed liked it would be a good switch and I lived close by and I like Walnut Creek. My kids were grown and I needed full time work. It's a nice job.

What's involved in being a police services officer, or PSO? 
Mulligan: People mostly see us most doing parking. But we actually do a whole lot more. Because we're not sworn we can't do everything officers do. But we do everything to assist an officer. We do a lot of traffic control, crime scene investigation. We do the front counter. One of the police service officers manages the property and evidence room.

Our PSOs (police services offices) are on SWAT team,  and they do IT and first aid. We also install car seats.

We've also found stolen cars and lost cars, lost people. We've helped with the apprehension of criminals …. Lots of times we're the first on the scene of a traffic accident. We do all these other things that really help our community.

How many PSOs are on duty per day?
Lorenzi: It varies. Some days are light. There could be one or two on duty. There could he as many as four. Two to three is the average. Sometimes it's event driven. Sometimes it's seasonable: Christmas time, of course. The end of the week is busier than the end of the week.

Do officers have set routes?
Lorenzi: How PSOs do their route is random and discretionary.

Are there hot spots—where your officers are  looking for people to violate  more than other places--so I know how to avoid them? 
Mulligan: The yellow zones in front of Starbucks and Peet's. Those are notorious. People say, "Oh, I'll just be here a second and run in and get the coffee." 

But sometimes you just want to be able to park on the street and run into a shop and buy something...
Lorenzi: Yes, the street is a premium place.

What are bad parking practices you've seen?
Mulligan: [People parking illegally] in handicap zones … are awful.

And, people parking downtown in those spots that are such a premium and not fitting their vehicle into the "T." You'll see cars parked outside the T and it starts a domino effect.

Yeah, people parking over the line and hogging two spots: That drives me crazy, too. Where do you advise people to park in downtown?
Mulligan: The garages. They are cheaper.

Lorenzi: We want to keep parking open for everybody. Feeding the meter: You can't do that, for the sole purpose of being able to provide parking for the next person.

Isn't it true that once an officer starts to enter a ticket into his Autocite--the handheld computer device, he can't cancel it? Once, I was about two minutes late getting back to my spot, and the officer was apologetic about not being able to cancel it.
Lorenzi: They have the discretion to issue the ticket or not. But there also is a process that people can go through to appeal it. My goal in this town is that we're fair, that we're enforcing the laws that need to be enforced.

We're not here to rack up numbers. It's about moving people along and creating parking for everyone.

Any horror stories about people giving you a hard time for giving them tickets?
Lorenzi: The worst for me? I'm not sure I want to say it on tape. … I see people get more angry about getting a parking ticket than being cited for moving violations. I was a reserve officer for 10 years.

Why do you think getting a parking ticket just ticks people off? There have been a couple times, parking in downtown, that it has ticked me off.
Mulligan: It's easy to accept responsibility that "Yes, I was speeding, " as compared to "oh, I just parked here… or "I didn't intend to illegally park" … or "It was only for a minute." They seem to be more accepting of getting a more expensive ticket from a police officer than from a PSO.

Any final advice for what to do if we're going to risk parking on the street? 
Mulligan: If you're parking on the street, look around you. Sometimes you're in a hurry and you don't read all the signs. You put money in the meter, but you can still get a parking ticket. If I issue ticket,  I always look around to see if there is a sign for restricted parking. I also make sure that a tree is not in the way, that if I was Suzy Shopper, I wouldn't be able to see it. If the sign isn't visible, I don't issue the ticket.  I issue a warning.