I r policemanz!

[Nightgaunt]

Original article at WeAreAustin.com

Round Rock Citizens Allowed to Pass Out Parking Tickets

Reported by: Chris Coffey

Wednesday, Apr 7, 2010 @09:08pm CDT

Volunteers will soon start issuing parking tickets in Round Rock. The Round Rock city council recently passed an ordinance that allows non-sworn officers the ability to write tickets.

Drivers may not park in the same spot for more than two hours in some areas of downtown Round Rock. But some business owners see the same cars parked in the same spots the entire day.

“It takes away potential parking spaces for customers,” Sam David Paxman of Advanced Armorment said.

The city council passed the ordinance to enforce the rules and free-up capacity for uniformed Round Rock police officers.

However, any non-sworn staff member or volunteer that issues tickets will be monitored and trained.

Still, some drivers are opposed to the new ordinance.

“I like Round Rock, downtown, the way it is,” Nancy Pena said. “I like not being overly-policed like we are in Austin.

Others do not want to see volunteers with too much ticketing authority.

“If Round Rock decides to hire a police officer to write tickets that are out here longer than two hours, they’re part of the police force, but if someone personally gave me a ticket I would rip it up and throw it away,” Lara McKeown said.

There is a free downtown parking garage for consumers to use.

Meantime, the mayor is still spreading the word about the new ordinance to business owners.

What do you think the ramifications of this sort of thing could be if it was practiced in every town? Can we look forward to a future where neighbors monitor each other for breaking ordinances? Think maybe some of these volunteers are going to go ticket-happy?

[Msterbeau]

Guaranteed it will be abused by some power-hungry twit or pissed off store owner. Curious how it will hold up in court. What proof will they need to have that offense occurred?

Edited April 9, 2010 by Msterbeau

[Simon Bar Sinister]

What do you think the ramifications of this sort of thing could be if it was practiced in every town? Can we look forward to a future where neighbors monitor each other for breaking ordinances? Think maybe some of these volunteers are going to go ticket-happy?

Harper Valley PTA meets Lord of the Flies.