CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) -
The Corpus Christi Police Department announced its big ticket-writing campaign that started Wednesday. It focuses on drivers who park their cars in violation of the law.
Wednesday kicked off phase three of the plan, which began with a media campaign, followed by warnings.
"We issued some 24,000 warnings throughout the city, and then phase three is today, Aug. 1," CCPD Chief Floyd Simpson said. "Those warnings will now turn into citations."
Simpson added that the police department is not declaring war on the city. Instead, they are trying to change behavior.
City parking enforcers then went out and laid down the law to those owners of vehicles parked the wrong direction or blocking sidewalks.
Parking control officers and police patrolmen were handing out tickets to those who were violating parking laws. Officers drove up and down streets, from Calallen to the Island, looking for people who have not figured out how to park correctly.
There was controversy right off the bat Wednesday morning, because a man who claimed to be a police officer ended up getting a ticket. Two parking control officers were discussing the issue over the radio.
"That El Camino belongs to a police officer," a parking enforcement officer said over the radio. "He was blocking the sidewalk. I gave him a citation. I didn't know he was a police officer, and he was trying to make a complaint saying that he wasn't blocking the sidewalk, but he clearly is."
"That brings up a good point," parking control Officer Jason Ridge said. "Is anyone immune from this? No. No one is immune from this, and this comes straight from the top chief Simpson. This is his initiative, so yeah, no one is immune from this."
Ridge found one car after another along Sharon Street in violation of city parking laws, some parked the wrong direction, others blocking the sidewalk. Officers said the great thing about the ticket-writing system in place is that they simply scan the barcode on our vehicle's license window sticker, and then that produces the vehicles owner, whose name will go on the actual ticket.
Ridge has a belt printer which writes the ticket out for him. He then places it in a yellow envelope, and it's placed under the windshield wiper of the vehicle in violation. The officers will then take a picture to back up their ticket.
The officer pointed out that the cars parked in a driveway along Sharon Street had plenty of room on the driveway to have parked to avoid the ticket; or, they could have parked in the street.
