I live in Parckchester, the Bronx, which suffers from congested parking. There is an officer who lives in the surrounding neighborhood who constantly parks her personal vehicle (a 2003 Honda accord coupe) in the public parking space in the complex which is metered parking. Not only does she not park her car there all day long without paying the meter but she parks in tow away zones, she parks her vehicle nose out which is a no-no (nose in towards the curb is mandated by the posted traffic sign), and on several occassions while other residents sit and wait for a parking spot to open up, she has defiantly grabbed the parking before the other drivers who have (waited several minutes or even an hour) can move in to park. I asked a neighbor who works for the NYPD Traffic department Parking Enforcement division, why traffic agents constantly allow her to get away with this bypassing her vehicle everytime and issuing summonses to others who mght just be a few minutes too late in putting quarters in the meter. His answer was simple and to the point, "It's illegal but no traffic agent will issue a summons to an officer of the NYPD for such a violation for fear of reprisal. there's an unwritten rule to turn a blind eye because traffic agents rely on the support of the officers when performing their duty. If traffic agents begin to issue summonses to Officers of the NYPD, traffic agents may not get the critical assistance they need if they encounter trouble on the streets."

He also informed me that Court Officers, and Corrections Officers get issued summonses all the time, but that it is up to the discretion of the agent to bypass their vehicle and show leniency. Newer agents just assume its bad business to issue any summonses to any law enforcemnet personnel period. However, very often that same professional courtesy is not returned to the agents by members of the NYPD Police Officers.