PARKING TICKET GEEK EDITOR'S NOTE: Ticketmaster is a Parking Enforcement Aide (PEA) for the city of Chicago Dept. of Revenue. Ticketmaster has been pounding the pavement of the streets of Chicago, and issuing those darn bright orange violations for the past six years. Ticketmaster very graciously, every two weeks, answers questions from readers and shares his/her knowledge and experience within the parking enforcement system to give our readers insight and information to hopefully avoid tickets altogether.
Ticketmaster!
1-Is there an average or range of tickets per day PEA's are expected to write in an 8 hour shift?
2-How many tickets you normally write in a day/week/month/year?
3-What's the most number of tickets you've written in a shift?
4-Are there some PEA's who are ticket writing machines who are consistently writing large volume of tickets? If so, what kind of numbers do these PEA's hit on a daily/weekly/monthly/annual basis?
The Parking Ticket Geek
Parking Geek, that is a lot of questions. Don't know if I can answer them, but will try.
1. There is is no average. That would be the same as giving a quota.
2. Really can't answer the question. When I was on the afternoon shift I would do extremely well. Fewer people are out writing tickets from other agencies. Daytime, there is more competition so it is a harder to get the count that I did on the afternoon shift.
3. My personal best 160
4. There are a few ticket writing machines (myself included) and I cannot answer that question as far as the actual count goes, however it does exceed over a hundred daily.
Yo Ticketmaster!!!
Do you ever get hassled by pissed off people you gave tickets to? Did you ever have to fight anyone? Howabout some of your co-workers? Do they ever get beatup? Can you tell us some crazy stories?
Ivory
Hello Ivory,
Congratulations, you are the first person outside of the Parking Geek to ask me a question(s).
Funny thing is, my wife and kids ask me those questions everyday when I get home.
Yes, I have been hassled by citizens that receive tickets. Gratefully it does not happen that often. In fact, usually the most a citizen will do is call me every name in the book using language that I do not care to repeat.
I am sorry, however I will not answer your questions in regards to physical altercations. All I will say is that we are trained to avoid any and all physical confrontation. Besides, let's look it at from financial aspect for the citizen. If a PEA is assaulted and the police department is notified, more than likely it will become very expensive for them.
Look at it this way. A good co-worker of mine broke it down like this:
You will be arrested, and assuming no priors you will have a $500 bond, your car will be towed and impounded $170 (tow and storage fee - assuming you manage to get it out the same day) At least 2 day's pay is lost (date of occurrence and your court date), more than likely you will have hired a lawyer (costing even more money) all over a ticket that could have been avoided with watching for signs, spending a quarter, or keeping your car in compliance with the laws.
The PEA, 2-4 hours worth of paperwork and paid overtime.
This is not me trying to be funny. This is a reality check. It's OK to be upset if you get a ticket. Nobody likes tickets. You want to scream and yell, cool. But keep your hands to yourself.
Ticketmaster's Stories From The Front
Being on this job for as long as I have, my coworkers and I have plenty of crazy stories to share. In fact, I may make that a weekly contribution.
If you read the Chicago Sun-Times on August 8, 2008 you will have seen a story about a cop suspended over demanding a free cup of coffee from Starbucks. So, it is only appropriate that a Starbucks be involved in this crazy story.
There is a Starbucks located on Chicago & State, and as we all know, Rush Hour is from 7am-9am. This citizen, chose to park their car and go inside to get their morning fix of caffeine. The time 8:00am. Coming across this violator, I was all set to issue this vehicle a $50 rush hour ticket, when the citizen comes running out pleading that they only was going to park for a couple of minutes and had paid for their coffee and was waiting for it.
I politely told them, that I understand them, but they were breaking the law and that they would need to move their car.
The citizen actually stood there and debated whether to move the car or accept the ticket. Thankfully, they chose to move the car and walk back to the Starbucks for their joe. Ironically, a city tow-truck drove by as they pulled off in their vehicle.
In case your wondering, I did extend them the courtesy of moving their vehicle before I wrote them a ticket.
Kind Regards
Ticketmaster
Thanks Ticketmaster--great info as always!
If you have a question for Ticketmaster, please send your questions to either:
askthepea@theexpiredmeter.com or
ticketmaster@theexpiredmeter.com
For more Chicago parking ticket advice, red light camera info and Chicago parking ticket news, check out The Expired Meter.