“Some days I can go all day without anybody screaming too much, and then some days you’ll get back-to-back people getting upset over a ticket,” said Tanna White, a parking enforcement officer with the Lancaster Parking Authority.

Enforcement is only 25 percent of what the Lancaster Parking Authority does. It oversees parking enforcement, city garages, and street parking. 

“The three areas that we are responsible for, that actually is the highest ticketed area, is street sweeping,” said Larry Cohen, executive director of the Lancaster Parking Authority.

In 2018, parking enforcement officers issued 113,012 tickets totaling $2,845,705 in parking fines. There were 43,608 street sweeping violations amounting to $1,089,700. Meter violations brought in $648,640 with 32,464 tickets. The most tickets were given out on popular streets like King, Queen, Prince and Duke streets.

“It’s different every day. We just walk wherever. We don’t really have a specific route, we cover all of downtown,” said White.

The Lancaster Parking Authority keeps 10% of the revenue. The rest goes to the city’s general fund. It is working to give out less parking tickets in 2019.

“Part of what we’re doing is working with the city to try to do proactive messaging to the community, for example with street sweeping, to let the community members know that today is your street sweeping day, please move your vehicle,” said Cohen.

The Lancaster Parking Authority recently became an accredited organization. 

ABC27 News also looked at parking in the City of York. In 2018, there were 12,349 meter violations totaling $246,980, which goes towards the city’s general fund. The most common area for tickets is the retail ware around George Street.