Threats and assaults on PPA officers have skyrocketed 300% since the pandemic began

At the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the ticket writers trade war stories.

In June, Thomas Headley was writing up an illegally parked sedan in Northern Liberties when the driver got “nose to nose” with him and threatened to punch his lights out.

Two years ago, another driver followed through on the threat to Headley’s supervisor, Megan Gallagher, sending her to the hospital to get two stitches.

Around the same time, Janet Laing experienced a different kind of horror while training a new colleague in Center City.

“He spat out the window at me, got out of the car, came back around the sidewalk, pulled out his genitals, shook it around, got back into the car, spat at me some more, and then drove off,” Laing said.

Altercations come with the turf for the parking enforcement officers, or PEOs, whose salaries start around $37,000 a year. But over the last three years, verbal threats and physical assaults have nearly tripled, raising concerns about worker safety amid a staff shortage and even disrupting enforcement operations in particularly violent areas.

In 2019, parking enforcement officers reported 76 incidents, ranging from physical attacks to violent threats to intimidation. That figure remained steady through 2020, even as the pandemic ground parking operations to a halt. In 2021, PEOs reported 226 incidents — roughly one per parking officer. This year is on pace to break that record.

Incident reports provided to The Inquirer by the PPA show a stream of vitriol and violence: punches to the face, a glass bottle to the head, a cup of hot coffee to the chest.

“Everybody hates us,” said Carla Evans, who’s been ticketing cars for six years. “The job is tough. It’s not for the weak.”

Most alarming to PPA officials is the uptick in gun threats. Midway through 2022, six officers have reported someone flashing a gun at them during their patrols, compared with only one gun incident in the previous three years combined. Don’t show your face around here anymore, one pistol-toting man reportedly told an officer who was ticketing a Northwest Philly block in March.

PPA officials chalk up the spike to what they call a pervasive sense of lawlessness.

“We’re at a point where the citizens are kind of running the city,” said Christine Quinn, the deputy manager of parking enforcement. “They believe if they cause enough commotion, if there are enough threats, it’s going to keep us away and they can keep doing what they want on their block.”

Of the 109 physical assaults on parking officers tracked by the PPA since 2018, police made only 17 arrests.

In many cases, the violence begins over a ticket dispute. Other times, the mere sight of blue-uniformed PPA patrols with their handheld ticketing devices is enough to flare tempers.

Reported incidents reflect only serious cases that warranted calling a supervisor for backup, because the daily barrage of curses, middle fingers, and general aggravation — is considered just part of the job.

But the increase in violence and physical threats has PPA officials implementing more de-escalation training and looking for new ways to keep patrols safe — even if that means making some blocks no-go zones.

Many altercations have occurred in the PPA’s expanding network of residential parking zones.

Driven by demand for enforcement outside Center City, officials said, the PPA now enforces time-restricted parking on 1,700 blocks — a quarter more than it did five years ago.

In some areas, PEOs said they encounter outraged residents who refuse to pay for a $35 annual parking permit, even after tickets stack up on their dashboards. Officers also said others are territorial for a variety of reasons, from drug dealing to simple hatred of the agency.

Evans was patrolling near 52nd Street in West Philadelphia when a man ordered her to stop scanning license plates on the block and then spat in her eyes.

“I freaked out,” Evans said. “This was the beginning of COVID.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia Parking Authority abruptly ousts executive director Scott Petri

Supervisors will rush to the scene to assist a staffer who reports a threat, and call the police if the situation becomes physical. PEOs are also told to hide in businesses to avoid an aggressive person. On residential blocks, however, there is often nowhere to hide. Officers must rely on their de-escalation training to defuse risky situations — or flee.

“There’s no safe spot,” said Headley.

Safety concerns have led the PPA to cease enforcement entirely in three areas, though officials declined to identify the blocks.

Frank Halbherr, the District Council 33 union rep for the workers, said he’s in talks with PPA officials about equipping patrols with body-worn cameras.

Another discussed safety measure: officers working in pairs rather than flying solo. PPA officials said they didn’t believe it would be much safer. Besides, the PPA is contending with a staffing shortage. The authority employed 220 PEOs in May, well short of the 285 goal.

“It’s the perfect storm,” Halbherr said.

Philadelphians love complaining about the PPA. It’s one of the city’s great unifiers.

“I hear it from kids on school buses,” said Evans, with a laugh.

Enforcement officers acknowledge they are often cast as merciless or predatory arbiters of an uneven parking system that allows vehicles to park on the Broad Street median but slaps down fines for running 30 seconds over the meter.

But they said they are only as merciful as the system allows them. They can turn a blind eye to that person running a quick errand, but once they put the license plate into the system, they can’t retract the ticket.

“You feel like you’re trapped or you can’t move because someone is screaming and threatening you, but we have no control,” Headley said.

» READ MORE: Philly City Council probes ‘financial chaos’ at the PPA

Eric Rosso, an organizer with the progressive advocacy coalition Pay Up PPA, said executive mismanagement and internal scandals have helped foster a culture that makes it easy for people to “hate the PPA,” and take it out on the workers.

“There is no valve to relieve PPA anger and frustration, and it continues and perpetuates these sorts of dynamics,” said Rosso.

But staffers said it is not all doom and gloom. They receive daily praise from residents who find more readily available parking near their homes after work thanks to the PPA.

Often, even the drivers are understanding. Laing said a man once held an umbrella over her head as she wrote his car a ticket in the pouring rain.

To those who think they’re above the PPA’s law, however, tough luck.

“If you hate me that much,” Headley said, “pay your meter and I won’t have a job.”