Crime & Safety

Ask an Officer: High Schoolers Parking, Responding to Calls

Have a question for Prince William County Police Department? Ask it here.

If you have questions for the Prince William County Police Department, we'll pass them along to Officer Jonathan Perok and First Sgt. Kim Chinn, public information officers with the department.

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Question: Is there anything that can be done about high school kids parking on our street and using the path to the high school because they don’t want to pay to park? We have no less than a dozen cars on our street every morning. This happens about this time every year and it is crazy.

Answer: Unfortunately if the development the students are parking in consists of state-maintained roads, there is no violation the police could charge them with unless they are parked illegally, i.e. too close to an intersection, fire hydrant, etc. As far as the cut-through portion of your question, without knowing the specific school you are referencing, if the property is private, then that could be an issue, but again, we would need to know more information. Call our non-emergency line at 703-792-6500 to report it. Code section below: 

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Sec. 13-320. - General parking prohibitions.

(a) No person shall park a vehicle, except when necessary to avoid other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic control device, in any of the following places:

(1) On a sidewalk.

(2) Within an intersection.

(3) In front of a public or private driveway.

(4) Within 15 feet of a fire hydrant.

(5) On a crosswalk.

(6) Within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection; provided that, where there is no crosswalk at an intersection, no person shall park a vehicle within 20 feet from the intersection of curblines or, if none, within 15 feet of the intersection of property lines.

(7) Within 30 feet of any flashing beacon, stop sign or traffic control signal located at the side of a roadway.

(8) Between a safety zone and the adjacent curb or within 30 feet of points on the curb immediately opposite the ends of a safety zone, unless a different length is indicated by official signs or markings.

(9) Within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad grade crossing.

(10) Within 15 feet of the driveway entrance to any fire station and, on the side of a street opposite the entrance to any fire station, within 75 feet of the entrance, when properly signposted.

(11) Alongside or opposite any street excavation or obstruction, when such parking would obstruct traffic.

(12) On the roadway side of any vehicle parked at the edge or curb of a street or so as to leave more than two feet between the vehicle and the edge or curb, measured at the nearest point of the vehicle to the curb or edge.

(13) Upon any bridge or other elevated structure upon a highway or within a tunnel.

(14) At any place where official signs prohibit parking.
  (b) Law enforcement officers may move motor vehicles to any place they may deem expedient without regard to the provisions of this section, when in the performance of their lawful duties.

Question: We have a neighbor that seems to have a lot of people living in the house. I can count about six cars or more in the driveway and street nightly. At times they have half blocked access to my driveway. I know there are adults and children living in the house but it just seems like a lot to me.

Answer: Not sure what the specific question is but if your driveway is being blocked then the police can ticket and/or tow the vehicle. Call our non-emergency line at 703-792-6500 to report it. If your question pertains more to occupancy regulations, County Neighborhood Services handles those complaints. You can file a grievance at their website:

http://www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/publicworks/ns/Pages/Occupancy-Complaint-Form.aspx

Code section in reference to parking is below: 

Sec. 13-320. - General parking prohibitions.

(a) No person shall park a vehicle, except when necessary to avoid other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic control device, in any of the following places:

(3) In front of a public or private driveway.

Question: Do police officers always have to respond to a call if the person calling in seems to be calling purely out of racist motives? As in, there's an Arab-looking man driving a white van—it looks suspicious—can you check it out?

Answer: Yes, because we have no way of knowing if the caller's motive is pure or not.  If officers can determine that someone is falsely summoning the police to harass another person, they can be arrested. When people do call us about suspicious activity we always ask for as much identifiers about the person and the vehicle if one is involved.  The more descriptive information we can get the more likely it is that we can find the person and determine whether there is illegal activity or not.

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