FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Police officers with Fort Leonard Wood’s Directorate of Emergency Services are responding to a number of parking violations in highly trafficked areas of the installation and are asking for the community’s assistance in helping eliminate future potentially hazardous situations on post.
The parking violations are most-commonly occurring in family housing and around the installation’s temporary lodging areas. Some of the common violations DES patrols are finding, include:
- parking outside of marked parking spots;
- parking in front of fire hydrants and marked “no parking” zones with hashed painted areas;
- parking within 30 feet of a crosswalk;
- parking facing against the flow of traffic; and
- parking on the side of a street in housing with odd-numbered addresses and along the inside curb in cul de sacs and circular streets.
Improperly parked vehicles that block roadways or make it difficult to maneuver a vehicle can pose serious hazards, including traffic accidents and an inability for emergency response vehicles to reach those who may need assistance. Additionally, allocating police patrols for parking violations pulls those resources away from other important missions they perform.
Beyond posing potential dangers, those who violate parking regulations on post may be required to pay towing and storage fees if it is determined the vehicle needs to be removed; driving privileges may be revoked for multiple or gross parking violations; and in some instances, owners of illegally parked vehicles may be found liable if a traffic accident occurs.
To assist Fort Leonard Wood drivers in better understanding on-post parking regulations, DES regularly engages with installation leaders, who are requested to communicate messages with their subordinates and students, and the community directly, via public messaging — this article, for instance. DES also conducts what are called focused parking enforcement efforts, when patrols actively look for parking violations, and passive enforcement, when patrols address parking issues they find while in the course of other duties.
When a parking infraction is found, patrols have multiple options to address the issue, depending on the frequency and severity of the offense or offenses. These include notices intended to change behavior at the lowest level and prevent any disruption to normal operations or periods of instruction; forms that bring the issue to the attention of supervisors and the chain of command; and citations, which, in addition to notifying the chain of command, require the offender to pay a sum of money and potentially appear in court.
More information on prohibited parking areas on post can be found in FLW Regulation 190-5, available to read on the Fort Leonard Wood website.
(Editor’s note: Freed is a supervisory police officer with DES’ Traffic Management and Collision Investigations section.)
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