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John Hollenhorst ReportingA Utah man was arrested yesterday for lipping off to a meter maid. His mistake was to leave a tape-recorded threat on her home answering machine. The incident has already led to a change in Salt Lake City policy.
You know how aggravating it is. You plug the meter, but not quite enough. So when you're not looking, you get a parking ticket. Maybe it's just 10 or 20 bucks, but some people get plenty mad and can't keep their anger bottled up.
When these guys are on patrol it can ruin your day. Gilbert Lopez is training a new man on how to write parking tickets. Lopez knows the ropes, he's written close to a half million citations over the years and he sympathizes with citizens who get mad.
Gilbert Lopez, Parking Enforcement Officer: "That is hard, you know. I would be the same way if I went someplace, took my wife out and, boom, have to pay another 20 dollars on top of that."
They usually don't even see the people they give tickets to. When they do, most are reasonable, but one time, well, a citizen revolted.
Gilbert Lopez: "And he came right back at me and kind of threw me up against a Jeep. And all of a sudden there was a police officer there to stop him. I think he was going to hit me, but he kind of backed off a little bit."
That's why Lopez counsels trainees to take it easy and keep it from getting personal.
Gilbert Lopez: "You try and bring them down and calm them down. We've had training to try to bring people down so you're not fighting with them."
In the case of Kevin Cressall, he apparently never even saw the parking enforcement officer he's accused of threatening. She gave him a citation for blocking a sidewalk. He figured out her name by reading the parking ticket.
Det. Kevin Joiner, SLC. Police Dept.: "He read the name off the bottom of the citation, got to the phonebook, found the name, made a call, left a threatening message on an answering machine."
That's why the city suddenly has a new policy for officers writing parking tickets.
Gary Griffiths, SLC Compliance Division Manager: "So now they're putting initials and badge number on the ticket." Q-Instead of their full name? "Correct."
Anger mismanagement is common enough that the officers get regular training in how to handle it, but hostile encounters are actually pretty rare. Most people just take their lumps, read the ticket and pay up.
