More Boots on the Ground

Now more than ever, Robert Pettis might be one of the most unpopular men in Prince George's County.

He wears a badge and a uniform, but he is not a cop. He is an officer of the Revenue Authority, and he is on the front lines of an effort to get tough on long-ignored parking laws by writing more tickets and putting boots on the vehicles of drivers who don't pay up.

In the Washington region, the District has long been the model of stringent -- or nitpicky, some of those ticketed would say -- code enforcement. In Prince George's, however, some people realized that they could get away with a lot more. Many who received citations let them accumulate because authorities did little to follow up.

That's changing. Fifteen enforcers are handing out an estimated 6,000 traffic-related citations every month, and officials said last month that they hope to increase the number.

Pettis, 25, roams the roads at random, often handing out dozens of tickets during a shift. Name any profanity, and he probably has heard it in the line of duty.

"People don't like us," he said on a recent day during his rounds. "It doesn't bother me at all."

Not everyone despises him. Community leaders who have struggled to get police to pay more attention to parking violations and similar nuisances welcome a promise to crack down.

Gloria Smith of Avondale said illegal parking has become more prevalent in the past five years. She recently volunteered for a neighborhood code enforcement team, and she said she sees an uphill battle ahead.

But county residents who are being ticketed for parking the same way they have for decades are befuddled, and sometimes hostile. Common practices that are illegal include parking on the wrong side of the road or on the unpaved public right of way along residential streets.

Pettis, who has been on the force for a year, tries to avoid confrontations. When someone being ticketed runs out of a house to chew him out, he might stop writing the citation and leave. But he will be back.

In January, to put teeth into enforcement, officers began booting vehicles whose drivers had two or more tickets at least 90 days overdue.

Officials insist the new approach is not about raising revenue. They say the effort is a centerpiece of the county's Livable Communities Initiative, a bid to improve the quality of life by sending the message that all laws, however minor, must be followed.