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Santa Barbara Police describe expanded parking-enforcement staffing, LPR rollout and enforcement priorities
Summary
SVPD outlined parking-enforcement duties, expanded staffing to 11 parking enforcement officers, license-plate-reader plans and operational priorities including abandoned-vehicle abatement, street-sweeping enforcement and timed enforcement.
At the Downtown Parking Committee meeting on July 10, Santa Barbara Police Department representatives summarized how the department enforces parking rules, described current staffing and outlined near-term technology upgrades to increase timed enforcement.
Sergeant Doug Klug, traffic sergeant at the Santa Barbara Police Department, told the committee parking enforcement is a unit in the police department that supports public safety and parking accountability across the city. Klug said the city currently employs 11 parking-enforcement officers (PEOs), a notable increase from five in mid-2023. He explained PEOs are unarmed, carry radios and can call uniformed officers when they encounter criminal activity; PEOs otherwise are focused on time-limited curb enforcement, street-sweeping enforcement, abandoned-vehicle abatement and oversized-vehicle warnings.
Klug said staffing allowed the unit to provide seven-day-a-week coverage. PEOs typically start early (around 5:30 a.m.) and work through the afternoon; overnight enforcement is handled by sworn officers. The unit coordinates with the city’s SB Connect system for complaint intake and posts 72-hour warnings before towing vehicles considered abandoned.
On timed enforcement, Klug described the current practice of ‘chalking’ or using license-plate-reading (LPR) vehicles. The city currently operates four LPR-equipped vehicles and plans to reach eight by the end of the year. Newer software will allow multiple officers and vehicles to see plate-read data in real time, Klug said, which should increase the unit’s ability to conduct more flexible timed enforcement and better enforce residential-permit (RPP) eligibility.
Committee members asked whether the recent increase in citations mostly reflects higher staffing or decreased compliance. Klug and staff said the rise in citations is largely due to increased staffing; if compliance improved, citation counts would decline. Commander Payne (SVPD) and parking staff added that LPR and electronic access to RPP lists will make enforcement more efficient because officers will not need to physically check stickers on every vehicle.
Klug emphasized the unit’s role in street sweeping (coordinated with Sustainability & Resilience) and abandoned-vehicle response and said that improved technology and continued hiring will increase the unit’s capacity for timed enforcement. The committee offered support and said they appreciated the collaboration with police.
