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A city worker was severely beaten for writing a parking ticket. His colleagues are demanding action.
Parking and code enforcement officers have long been a target of verbal and physical attacks for doing their jobs.
Boston officials are looking to better protect city workers who issue parking tickets after two recent assaults, one of which left an older man hospitalized.
On Feb. 2, a supervisor working an overnight shift for the Boston Transportation Department was badly beaten as he attempted to issue a parking ticket in Dorchester.
The worker was responding to a 311 complaint about an illegally parked car when he was confronted by a suspect who told him to “get the [expletive] out of here, tag someone else’s car,” according to a police report obtained by The Boston Globe.
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The suspect, identified as Kenneth Vandergrift, allegedly took a radio from the worker and beat him with it. He continued to punch and kick the worker as he fell to the ground, police said. Vandergrift was charged with three counts of assault and battery and one count of threatening to commit a crime, according to court documents. He was arraigned in Roxbury Municipal Court and pleaded not guilty.
The worker suffered “severe trauma” to his face and underwent surgery at a local hospital, according to officials. He has since been released.
The incident and another recent assault prompted Boston City Council to hold a hearing on the safety of BTD employees last Thursday. City officials faced numerous questions about the issue from councilors throughout the two-and-a-half hour hearing. Councilor Erin Murphy said she was told about the assaults by a BTD employee who was considering leaving her position because she was concerned for her safety.
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“No city employee should be assaulted, verbally or physically,” John Blackmore, head of the city’s code enforcement unit, said at the hearing. “I’ve been in code enforcement for 30 years, I’ve been on that end of it. We’ve all been assaulted or verbally attacked. It’s part of the job, unfortunately, but it shouldn’t happen.”
A ‘regular part of the job’
Jim Durkin, legislative and political action director for AFSCME Council 93, stressed that the high-profile attacks in recent weeks are not isolated incidents. He said that assaults are a “regular part of the job,” and that this was reflected in the results of a survey sent to parking enforcement officers before the hearing.
The response rate for the survey was 70%, Durkin said. Of the 73 workers who responded, only two said that they had never been physically or verbally assaulted on the job. Of the respondents, 59% said that they had been verbally assaulted more than 30 times over the course of their careers. Durkin said that 46% reported being physically assaulted between one and five times, and 5% reported being physically assaulted over 15 times.
A 62-year-old woman working as a parking enforcement officer had a quart of milk dumped on her head a few years ago, Durkin said. About 10 years ago, someone fired a bullet through the windshield of a parking enforcement van. It came inches from the head of the officer inside.
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Durkin and others who spoke during the hearing emphasized the need for a public education campaign.
Revenue from parking tickets is essential to the city’s budget, officials said, a fact that could be the basis of an awareness campaign. The city collected roughly $7.8 million from overnight parking tickets alone last fiscal year. There were 108,112 violations, according to Deputy Chief of Transportation Nick Gove.
“For some reason, there’s a lot of people out there who view these workers as the enemy, despite the fact that they keep the public safe by preventing parkers from blocking fire hydrants, crosswalks, or even parking in a handicapped spot,” Durkin said.
They ensure that the city’s limited street parking is rotated regularly, Durkin added. “Ironically, if they didn’t, most people would never even be able to be in the position of getting the ticket in the first place, because they’d never find an open spot.”
Union frustration
Currently, assaulting a city employee carries potential for a jail term of 90 days to two and half years and a fine of between $500 and $5,000, Durkin said. He called on councilors and Mayor Michelle Wu to work with the Suffolk District Attorney’s office to prosecute these crimes to the fullest extent of the law.
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“What I’m seeing now is disgusting. People are no longer afraid to put their hands on other people and fear no consequences. They throw coffee at us, they swear at us, they threaten us and more,” said Chris Stockbridge, a longtime code enforcement officer and President of AFSCME Local 1631.
Stockbridge said that staffing is a major issue for code enforcement officers, who police properties that fail to comply with various city codes and regulations. There are just five officers who work Monday through Friday mornings to cover the entire city. In total, there are only 12 code enforcement officers and three supervisors, Blackmore said.
For parking enforcement, staffing is less of a pressing concern, Gove said. There has been improvement in fiscal year 2024, with 20 parking meter supervisors hired so far and another hiring day planned for March.
“I am very optimistic based on what we are seeing in terms of interest. We are seeing people apply to these jobs, and that is very, very encouraging. People see these as attractive jobs, understanding all the challenges that they may face,” Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge said.
Union representatives expressed frustration with city officials, accusing them of not adequately engaging with AFSCME and refusing to hold a labor management meeting. Such a meeting has not been held since 2013, the union representatives said.
“This is a problem we can only fix together,” Director of Field Services and Organizing for AFSCME Council 93 Ed Nastari said. “This administration’s been good to us. We want that to continue. We want to fix this together.”
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