Parking enforcement officers are arguably among the most misunderstood — and underappreciated — employees on campus. Just ask them.

You know who they are: they wear dark blue pants, blue shirts and they walk through parking lots with a hand-held calculating device that can print out a ticket faster than you can say, "Hey, wait a minute."

UC Davis' parking officers patrol every parking lot at least twice a day, paying particular attention to the more than 330 meters spaced strategically around this busy campus. Do they write many citations? On average, the campus's five full-time parking officers print out 3,000 parking violations a month.

That adds up to a lot of money. Preliminary figures show that UC Davis' Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) unit brought in $861,070 from parking citations during the 2007-08 fiscal year that ended June 30.

But it does not always come easily.

Matt Tidd, a five-year veteran, says he gets his fair share of abuse from the campus community.

"As we patrol parking lots on foot we occasionally hear verbal abuse," he said. "While walking the parking lots, it's not uncommon to hear people swearing at us or questions like, 'Did you get your quota today?' People take out their frustrations on us. Sometimes we're called racists or they say we are targeting them."

To the contrary, Tidd says, parking officers are actually nice people, real human beings. In fact, they are quite reasonable. "We give a lot of warnings and try to be as flexible as possible to negotiate to a point," he said.

Erin Paige, permit and citation supervisor at TAP, agreed that people often stereotype the officers and do not know the person behind the badge.

"We receive positive feedback from our parking patrons — this comes in the form of e-mails and phone calls. In particular, motorists appreciate a warning rather than a citation as well as our ability to help them out with things like flat tires and engine jump starts," Paige said.

Students and citations

For Tidd, his worst encounter came last year from an able-bodied woman who refused to leave a disabled spot after receiving a warning. When Tidd started to write a citation, he says the woman jumped out of her car and slapped him in the face. He called campus police, who arrested the woman on a charge of battery.

Often, Tidd says, people will park in a disabled space temporarily to conduct business and get caught. Those fines are hefty — $288 — and are rarely negotiable. The reason is that disabled patrons need closer access and may not have the option of parking farther away.

"By and large, students are the biggest violators of not displaying a valid parking pass," said Tidd. "If they buy a one-day parking permit on a Monday, and they try to reuse the same permit on Tuesday, they get caught, and complain. At times, they push my customer service etiquette to the limit."

Of the 3,000 tickets that are issued on average each month, 350 to 500 cited drivers make official appeals to TAPS, and the large majority benefit from their efforts.

"For example, of the citations issued in April, 542 people contested theirs, with 506 resulting in dismissal," said Paige. "If a vehicle has not been cited before, there are circumstances where our enforcement officers would typically issue a warning instead of a citation."

Paige said an example would be a visitor who purchased a daily permit, but parked in an 'A' space. After reviewing the circumstances of the citation and the driver's parking violations record, they sometimes dismiss the ticket. Often, the enforcement officers post a courtesy notice on the driver's window describing the violation, and thereby cutting drivers some slack.

Tidd says that the next time you see a parking officer, be kind and say hello. "After all, we work in all kinds of weather conditions and can be your best friend…" Indeed, it is the TAPS parking officers who provide a range of motorist assistance services, including lock-out assistance if you have locked your keys in your car; tire inflation if a tire goes flat; a jump start if your battery dies, and a ride to the nearest gas station — and a loaner gas can — if you run out of fuel. They also provide emergency rides home during the day for registered members of the transit pool.

Pam Evans, an administrative assistant for the Office of Resource Management and Planning, is happy about her experiences with TAPS parking officers. She received a citation for not displaying the proper permit on her dashboard.

"I saw the enforcement officer some distance away, tracked him down and he came back to my car and explained precisely why I was cited," said Evans. "He could not see the placard number which verifies its authenticity. He was very helpful and voided my ticket."

'A small percentage'

Tidd says that the parking enforcement officers have it relatively easy, compared with the customer service representatives who work at the TAPS offices behind the Police and Fire Building. Those who receive citations often go there to complain about being cited.

"Our staff work behind a safety barrier," said Paige. The barrier, called Lexan, is clear glass in appearance, but is far more durable."

She added, "Ninety-five percent of our customers are courteous and kind, but there is a small percentage that is verbally abusive when they come into the office. Sometimes they yell at us, curse and call us incompetent or ridiculous. There are times when a customer insists on going straight to the director — they tell us that they want to talk to Cliff," said Paige.

The "Cliff" they are referring to is Cliff Contreras, the director of TAPS. Paige says Contreras occasionally mediates these disputes but usually leaves that responsibility to the trained and skilled customer service reps.

Overall, the parking enforcement officers know that working at UC Davis is a whole lot better than working in a big city where, each year, there are reports of parking officers hospitalized after being assaulted.

More information: www.taps.ucdavis.edu.