Jessica Smith, a parking code enforcement officer, monitors parking meters on Main Street in White Plains.
WHITE PLAINS — CSEA members who sign on as parking code enforcement officers at the City of White Plains understand that some of what their job entails, whether it’s ticketing cars or calling in tow trucks, can upset the city’s motorists.
What none of them sign up for, however, are the constant verbal and physical attacks they’ve weathered these past few years.
“They were getting verbally abused and assaulted on a daily basis,” said City of White Plains Unit President Vincent Buffone.
Seeking a solution
Since those attacks ramped up, finding a solution and creating safer working conditions has been a top priority of unit leaders and our union’s staff. In a bustling small city such as this one, parking enforcement is a necessity, but Buffone said he and former unit President Joe Longo felt that couldn’t come at the expense of worker safety.
Earlier this year, Buffone approached the city’s public safety commissioner and the supervisor of parking enforcement to emphasize the need for enhanced safety measures and training, picking up the baton after Longo’s retirement.
The answer was roughly an hour away in Queens: the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Traffic Enforcement Training Unit.
As it turns out, the department’s supervisor had a connection with someone there and arranged for the majority of the City of White Plains parking code enforcement officers to spend a week there to sharpen their skills and learn new tactics to stay safe on the job.
The academy instructors tailored the weeklong course to address issues the White Plains workers were facing. To maintain adequate coverage in White Plains, half of the group attended one week and the other half attended the second week.
“It felt good to get this done,” said Buffone, who noted he’s received excellent feedback from the members.
In fact, the training was so well-received, members hope to have regular refreshers and see new hires attend as well.
Graves
“What I took away from the training was learning how to be more courteous and more kind, as well as the verbiage we should be using with the public,” said CSEA activist Keith Graves, a shop steward and parking code enforcement officer. “Ideally, we should be training like this every six months.”
Hudson-Mack
“The standards at the academy are really high. The NYPD training for their traffic enforcement agents is actually around three months,” said Kiaama Hudson-Mack.
Body language and the use of certain verbiage can reduce the chance of encounters escalating. Members were taught to use what is known as an interview stance when approaching vehicles and substitute certain words, such as using “however” instead of “but,” to help prevent escalation.
Jenkins
“I catch myself using the interview stance now and using the word ‘however’ more frequently and I do think that has been helpful,” said Tamara Jenkins, a senior parking code enforcement officer.
Ed Ignaszewski, the city’s supervisor of enforcement, confirmed that the training has yielded positive results.
“Since the training, we’ve changed the way we do things,” Ignaszewski said.
The outcome has shown that when our union advocates for workplace safety and health on the labor-management level, activism can help make workplaces safer.
“Our union has always been good,” said Jessica Smith, a parking code enforcement officer. “Now people are a little more confident on the job.”
— Jessica Ladlee
Front row, from left are parking code enforcement officers Joseph Nardelli, Mark Casarella, Jessica Smith, Tamara Jenkins, Kiaama Hudson-Mack and Keith Graves. Back row, from left, Supervisor of Enforcement Ed Ignaszewski and City of White Plains Unit President Vincent Buffone.
