Cumberland Times-News

Letters

September 8, 2010

It’s about more than just parking tickets

To the Editor: Cumberland Times-News

— This letter is a rebuttal to City Administrator (Jeff) Repp’s response (“Tickets not used to generate money, but for public safety,” Aug. 30 Times-News) to my letter to the editor regarding, among other things, the police writing tickets for parking against traffic (“Want to pay for parking spaces? Write some tickets,” Aug. 9).

First, I’d like to thank you for the response. Second, you obviously failed to get the thrust of my letter. I was speaking of the police writing tickets for parking against traffic merely as an example.

I was making the point that there are many everyday violations of Cumberland ordinances going on in front of our faces and nothing is being done about it. I reiterate that I see hundreds of violations of this ordinance every time I venture out into Cumberland.

I also see dozens of people running stop signs, speeding and otherwise breaking laws that were enacted to protect citizens “from issues that are obvious threats to public safety,” as you put it. Your lieutenant in charge of traffic enforcement even agreed with me via e-mail that parking against traffic is one of those threats.

The unstated criticism was that our police are not comporting with the dictates of community policing. I have never once seen a police officer walk through my neighborhood. I have, in fact, never once seen a police officer issue a ticket for a parking violation in my neighborhood.

You say officers have issued 300 tickets for parking against traffic in the last 18 months. Do the math: 300 tickets divided by (52 officers x 5 shifts x 4 weeks/month x 18 months). That comes out to .016 tickets per shift. Illuminating when phrased that way, isn’t it?

I also have it on good authority, i.e. the Cumberland Police Department, that the majority of these tickets were written during a short period of time when the issue was being pushed.

By being in our neighborhoods and by being involved in the minutiae such as ticketing people parking facing the wrong direction, the police perform a fundamental duty in having a presence that dissuades crime from happening.

They also ferret out more serious crime and criminals from observation and investigation stemming from, for example, writing tickets for parking in the wrong direction, running stop signs, etc.

Arresting someone for narcotics possession is commendable and necessary but stopping 10 people from buying them merely because of your presence is even more so. It is only a happy circumstance that this type of community policing can also generate revenue.

Finally, why does the public need to complain about violations of the law that officers drive by every single day? If they, as you say, “remain cognizant” of these violations while on patrol, why aren’t they enforcing the law? They drive past them, that’s why.

In short, the point of my letter is that we are failing to see the forests for the trees, the writing on the wall — pick your pejorative.

My original letter was never about revenue generation. It was about the fact that there are many issues out there that are easily remedied that will help improve our neighborhoods.

It was also about that every time I complain about something not being done by Cumberland city government, I often get the poor-mouth argument, to use my grandfather’s term. Obviously, you failed to see the subtlety in my letter.

For that I apologize. I wholeheartedly support our police department but I believe that Cumberland is more than a five-square block preservation district. It is made up of neighborhoods and I personally would like to see more police presence in those neighborhoods.

P. Brandon Kelley,

Cumberland



 

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