Police should play by the same rules | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Published 3:23 pm Monday, April 30, 2012

To the editor:

In your article about the police forum, you related the story of an officer who was “pounding the pavement” and returned to his vehicle to find a “nasty gram” reminder about time limits on downtown parking. Lieutenant Day described this as an example of getting it from both ends.

I was curious why he described downtown parking as being limited to two hours when it is actually three hours. It seems like a police officer of all people should know that.

I was also curious why a police officer pounding the pavement is different from any other employee or merchant who works downtown. A merchant can’t park all day in front of his or her store or shop and neither can downtown employees.

It seems to me that if the police are serious about community collaboration they could start by playing by the same rules as the rest of us.

If police are indeed exempt from parking restrictions it would be reasonable for the officers involved to politely point that out to the authors of any so-called “nasty grams.” That too would help with police-community relations.

MICHAEL SILVES

Fletcher Bay Road