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Karen Branch punches information into her handheld keypad. Parking enforcement officers also assist people who are lost on city streets.

Story and photos by Dave Schafer

The wide-bodied man’s question comes out of the blue, and it’s directed at the photographer standing beside Karen Branch. The man wants to start a magazine and wonders if the photographer knows any publishers.

But it’s Branch, an ambassador from City Hall in her job as parking enforcement officer, who gives him the addresses of a man who publishes two magazines and a woman who publishes a newspaper.

When the wide-bodied man leaves, Branch laughs. “You never know what you’ll get out here on the streets.”

Branch and the 26 other parking officers maintain parking and the flow of the diamond mobility lanes.

But their job isn’t just about issuing tickets. They are also alert for people in need of help or for potential trouble.

“We assist in any way people need,” Branch says.

Keeping order, keeping calm
“People may not like seeing us coming, but they need us,” Branch says. Her hands flutter and her face emphasizes her words: it scrunches, her brows furrow, the corners of her mouth fold into her cheeks, and her nostrils flare.

“Without parking enforcement officers, there could be all kinds of havoc.”

As she walks down the sidewalk, the fingers of her right hand dance across the buttons of the keypad in her left hand.

Branch types in the license plate numbers of the vehicles she passes, checking for outstanding citations. She stops at the metallic-silver parking meters that almost reach her shoulders. When she presses the numbers on their electrical faces, the readout tells her how much time is left on the parker’s dime. Often, the meter blinks “EXPIRED.”

A dark blue Escalade with Missouri license plates is in an EXPIRED spot. She keys the license plate into her keypad, which spits out a stub of printed paper that goes into a fluorescent green sleeve. Branch puts the ticket under the driver’s side windshield wiper.

The owner is upset about the ticket.

He tells Branch he paid the meter but hit the wrong button, buying two hours of parking time for the car behind his.

People use all kinds of excuses, Branch says. The most common comments she hears, next to “Do you have any change?” (no, she doesn’t), are, “I just ran in for a moment,” “I ran in for some change,” and “I’m just here to pick up my wife.”

After she tells him how to contest the ticket, he calls out, “Congratulations. I see you’re getting your money back for Katrina.”

“We get those types of comments all the time,” Branch says. Usually, though, they’re more personal.

“It’s not about making the mayor money,” she says. “It’s about enforcing the posted sign and giving others a chance to park.”

Enforcing the parking restrictions helps keep traffic moving because those with business downtown can find parking instead of circling.

Branch lets them vent. Then, when they calm down, she explains what they did wrong and addresses their gripes.

“I’m here eight hours a day,” she says. “It’s not going to hurt me to take five minutes to educate you. Maybe I’ll learn something, too.”

Educating them defuses the tension and turns a negative experience into a positive one, Branch says.

Taking in the scenery

W.T. Alexander, who had previously had a bad experience with a PEO, thanked Branch for her professionalism and for going out of her way to put him at ease.

As Branch walks her route, people stop to say hi or ask directions. Some change their course, veering to the parking meter before she gets to it.

Branch enjoys spending her days outside.

“I like to see scenery, and there’s an abundance of it out here,” she says.

Once she brought a pedometer with her and recorded more than 28,000 steps during her shift.

As she walks down a shady sidewalk, a man looks at her warily. “Are you the one who takes care of the meters?” he asks.

“Yes, I am now. How can I help you?” Branch asks that a lot. It disarms people who are angry because she’s wearing the blue uniform of an officer or because they have just gotten a ticket.

He tells her that the meter she’s approaching is broken, so he couldn’t pay for his spot. That happened to him before, across the street, and the parking enforcement officer ticketed him and wouldn’t check whether the meter was broken. When he’d innocently called her a meter maid, she’d gone off on him.

He didn’t bother contesting the ticket because he figured that meant dealing with others like that officer, he says.

Branch apologizes for the officer’s behavior and reassures him.

“Well, thank you,” he says. “You’ve eased the pain of that ticket.”

Just as a good ambassador should.

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