Parking Enforcement During COVID-19

February 1, 2021

by Matt Davis, CPP, CAPP, Director of Parking, Oxford Police Department

Everyone in the parking community understands that all aspects of parking enforcement in normal times is tough enough. Now, just think about that same type of enforcement during a worldwide pandemic that recommends that you stay six feet away from everyone! Parking enforcement has always been most effective when an officer is able to show kindness and empathy towards a customer during the citation process. This even transfers over to the office staff that has to deal with those customers when they come into the office to resolve that citation. Incorporating new COVID-19 policies into an existing parking enforcement system has definitely been challenging to say the least.

Normal, day to day parking enforcement can consist of happy greetings, snide remarks from unhappy customers, and even some face-to-face altercations. During COVID-19, our city leaders have asked our staff to enforce parking regulations as normal but try to reduce our in-person contact to help slow the spread of the disease. This can really be a challenge when actually trying to assist the customer with public information regarding the parking system. Our staff has really done a great job with helping the customer with their parking needs while staying at a safe distance.

Office staff has also had to relearn how to deal with the public especially during this hard time. The building where our main office is located was actually shutdown to the public for a few months so most of our communication with the customers was handled either over the phone or by email. Once the office was open to the public, additional physical security devices were added to help separate the staff from the public to aid in the prevention of spreading the virus. Parking information posters regarding ticket appeals and payments were also created to help communicate our parking policies with the customer.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) was another area that we had to deal with when trying to reestablish our parking enforcement program. Like most states, facemasks are required when dealing with customers in public spaces. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was a great resource for our department when knowing exactly what to order for our staff. There may have been an issue at the start in getting the PPE due to everyone else to trying to buy some but we were able to get everything we needed to properly interact with the public.

Parking enforcement during COVID-19 has definitely been a challenge! Each parking system has had to learn how to cope with all the changes and adjust current parking policies to help meet the needs of the customer while using our system. The one thing that we all must understand is that we must learn from our experiences in life and adapt to make policies and procedures better for the future.