Salisbury City Council considers new parking ordinance from Salisbury Police Department
SALISBURY, Md. – At Monday’s work session, the Salisbury City Council considered an ordinance proposed by the Salisbury Police Department.
It would potentially authorize other city departments to issue citations and warnings for parking violations.
“It gives those department heads the authority to designate certain individuals within their department to issue part, in this case, parking citations in the city,” said Salisbury Police Chief David Meienschein. “It would make sense to have the Fire Marshall’s Office within the fire department be able to issue fire lane citations, for example, it makes perfect sense that they would be authorized. And right now in the code, they’re not authorized to do that.”
Chief Meienschein said that in many cases, a city employee shouldn’t have to be a sworn police officer to issue a citation. The proposed ordinance is what he called a “force multiplier.”
“Extra eyes and ears for us when complaints come in or they see a violation. They don’t necessarily need to call one of us when we may be patrolling or addressing another issue within the city. This allows them to take specific direct action right there,” he said.
Chief Meienschein maintained that their goal is not to increase the volume of parking tickets, but rather educate the public and reduce the overall frequency of infractions.
“I would say more often than not, our officers, when they show up, our goal would be to educate the public. Say, ‘Hey, you’re parked in a fire lane and here’s why we should be parking here. You’re parked in a handicap spot and here’s why you shouldn’t park there.’”
Morgan Haupt, a student at Salisbury University learned her lesson after receiving just one warning downtown: “I’ve never gotten a parking ticket. I got the warning one time that I was out front of this building. I don’t know if there would have been a ticket if I were parked there again.”
According to Chief Meienschein, opening up parking enforcement would streamline operations and act as a general quality of life improvement for residents and certain departments. “By allowing other departments to engage in this type of enforcement and warnings, this is going to going to help us provide a better service to the to the citizens,” he said.
The ordinance currently lists the city’s Housing and Community Development Department, Fire Department, and Department of Field Operations employees as those who could help enforce parking.
The Police Chief would also have the authority to authorize other department heads, who would then designate specific employees.
There’s been no vote on the ordinance yet. It will be up to the council to move forward with a vote at a later meeting.
