Public Employee Press
DC 37 News
Parks enforcement focus on illegal parking
With hundreds of outdoor events held on Randall’s Island and in other parks citywide, the Dept. of Parks and Recreation is putting the brakes on drivers who illegally park on the grass.
“Our mission is to preserve the park grounds,” said Sgt. Michael Burke, a Local 983 member who regularly patrols Randall’s Island with PEP Officers Curtis Royer, Andrew Walker and Kevin Ramirez.
“People don’t realize parking on the grass, lawns and ballfields is damaging; the grounds have to be repaired,” Burke said. “That added maintenance takes time and money away from other Parks services.”
This summer PEP Officers wrote over 10,000 parking tickets, a number that has doubled since 2016, according to the mayor’s Office of Operations. The Parks Dept. employs about 364 PEP Officers to patrol its 30,000 acres of parkland, beaches and outdoor pools.
Randall’s Island is a venue for large events, and it is also the base for Homeland Security, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, New York State Troopers, police and other agencies. PEP Officers make sure access to these buildings and roadways is not blocked by illegally parked vehicles.
At Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, PEP Officers may ticket hundreds of illegally parked vehicles over a weekend.
“No parking means no parking,” said Local 983 President Joe Puleo. “In summer, people are focused on a good time, whether at a picnic or an outdoor concert. But they cannot randomly park on fields, grass or in locations not specifically authorized for parking.”
At Summer Stage in Central Park, the band shells in Coney Island, Prospect Park and other public parks, PEP Officers issue summonses for littering, urinating in public, ignoring leash laws and pooper scooper laws.
As unarmed Peace Officers, PEP Officers are authorized to make arrests. The ticketing blitz peaks between June and October.
“This law enforcement operation is a revenue generator for the city,” Puleo s`aid. “It makes sense to hire more PEP Officers because their work issuing summonses more than pays for itself.”
