As seen recently in the news, 30-year-old NYPD traffic enforcement agent Nivea Cloud has resigned after allegedly slapping bogus parking tickets on dozens of legally parked cars. NYC Parking Expert and author of "The Feder Guide" series of parking books had this to say, "It's a difficult enough situation as it is - trying to park in NYC - without a traffic agent making it worse. I have no idea if she did it or not, but I do know that I have heard from many people on PARKAZINE - my NYC parking e-newsletter, complaining of similar things. They've told me that they've been getting parking tickets when they've been parked legally, as well as 'phantom' tickets, when they were nowhere near the areas in question. I can't help thinking that if she is guilty, this traffic agent was trying to meet a ticket quota".

Cloud has been arraigned on several charges - the most glaring of which being issuing over two-dozen parking tickets at seven different Queens locations within a three-hour time period. She was spotted sitting in her car (in a handicapped parking space on 43rd Street in Long Island City) during the precise time that Cloud listed on six summonses she issued to vehicles supposedly parked at 37-06 Broadway.

The hidden motive - parking ticket quotas?

Although no motive was given, NYPD sources have stated that Cloud thought it was easier to ticket legally parked cars than to go out and search for illegally parked cars. But is laziness really the whole answer? Another line of thinking holds that Cloud was trying to fulfill parking ticket quotas. Although Mayor Bloomberg has denied their existence, preferring to call the quotas "performance standards", earlier this year an arbitrator named Bonnie Siber Weinstock did in fact find that these quotas exist and that officers who issue fewer than 35 parking summonses per quarter are at risk of facing disciplinary action. Feder states, "People have long suspected that police and traffic officers in NYC have quotas of parking and other tickets that they must meet. If the traffic enforcement agent is in fact guilty of knowingly ticketing cars that were parked legally, it would be a very small step to conclude that she was trying to fulfill a parking ticket quota".

Whether or not Ms. Cloud was trying to fulfill a parking ticket quota, the NYPD has said that every parking ticket issued by Nivea Cloud in the last three years will be voided. If convicted of the charges brought up against her, Cloud faces up to four years in prison.

Copyright 2006 Rhythmo Productions