''Parking Wars'' is an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series that aired on the A&E television network from 2008 to 2012. The program followed

parking enforcement officer A parking enforcement officer (PEO),United S ...

s as they engaged in ticketing, "

booting In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via hardware such as a button or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its main memory, so som ...

towing Towing is coupling two or more objects together so that they may be pulled by a designated power source or sources. The towing source may be a motorized land vehicle, vessel, animal, or human, and the load being anything that can be pulled. Th ...

and releasing vehicles back to their owners, as part of their

parking violation A parking violation is the act of parking a motor vehicle in a restricted place or in an unauthorized manner. It is against the law virtually everywhere to park a vehicle in the middle of a highway or road; parking on one or both sides of a road ...

enforcement duties. The show began airing on January 8, 2008. The 7th and final season premiered on October 6, 2012. The final episode was aired on December 22, 2012.

Series overview

Background

The series' original focus was on the employees of the

Philadelphia Parking Authority The Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that manages many parking operations for Philadelphia. The PPA was created by the Philadelphia City Council on January 11, 1950, for the purpose of condu ...

(PPA) and their daily work – ticketing, "booting" (via

wheel clamp A wheel clamp, also known as wheel boot, parking boot, or Denver boot, is a device that is designed to prevent motor vehicles from being moved. In its most common form, it consists of a clamp that surrounds a vehicle wheel, designed to preven ...

) and

vehicles, as well as dealing with issues that arise with vehicle owners when they try to retrieve their vehicles from the impound lots. The show also includes footage of vehicle owners interacting with

parking enforcement officer A parking enforcement officer (PEO),United S ...

s on the street when their vehicles are ticketed, booted or towed. Each episode consists of three segments, shown either in chronological order of a car entering the PPA violation system (ticket,

boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is cle ...

/tow, impound) or reverse chronological order. Booting a car usually requires the PPA employee to snap on a device, locking the mechanism of the front wheel so that it will not be able to move. Sometimes, attaching a boot to a car is difficult because of the size of the wheels. The procedure can often be unnerving because it is a race against time before the owner of the vehicle returns. Many of the booting segments feature the favorite team of Steve (better known by his last name, Garfield), a longtime PPA employee and self-professed "gadget geek", and his partner Sherry (who has "the fastest fingers on the Eastern Seaboard", according to her partner) as they travel on their assigned beats to track down vehicles with three tickets or more, all at least six months old, and "boot" them so that their owners cannot drive away until they pay the outstanding fines. One of the PPA tow truck drivers featured in the series, Martin, died shortly before the show's debut due to heart complications. The show's official page at aetv.com has a section dedicated to his memory.

Production

The first five seasons of ''Parking Wars'' were filmed on location in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Beginning in the third season,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

's MPD (Municipal Parking Department) was added as a location as well, in addition to the PPA. Beginning in season 6, the parking enforcement unit of

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, is featured. In season 6, the show added

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

and

North Hempstead North Hempstead is one of three towns in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 237,639 at the 2020 census. History The area was first settled by Europeans around 1643 and became part of the town of Hemps ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and Trenton,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, to its list of filming locations. The series was based on a 2001 documentary of the same name about the PPA, produced for A&E and Britain's Channel 5, about a day in the life of the PPA, from morning to late night, taped in April 2001. The documentary featured off-screen narration by Daniel Jenkins, as well as all elements of the PPA's operation – ticketing, booting, impounding, towing,

adjudication Adjudication is the legal process by which an arbiter or judge reviews evidence and argumentation, including legal reasoning set forth by opposing parties or litigants, to come to a decision which determines rights and obligations between the ...

and

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

ing. When the series debuted seven years later in 2008, the narrator was dropped in favor of the employees telling the stories themselves, each episode had three separate segments, and the adjudication and auctioning aspects were no longer featured (with towing only featured very occasionally). Some of the staffers that appeared in the documentary, such as boot crew member Steve Garfield, would later be seen in the series. When this documentary was rebroadcast after the start of the series, it was listed in television listings as "The Lost Pilot".Per A&E listings at zap2it.com.

References

Supplemental articles

New York Times: ''City Finds a Reality Show Hard to Watch'', June 22, 2009.

External links

* ttps://www.aetv.com/shows/parking-wars Official websitebr>Philadelphia Parking AuthorityDetroit Municipal Parking Department
*{{IMDb title, 1182156
A&E ''Parking Wars'' YouTube Playlist
A&E (TV network) original programming 2000s American reality television series 2008 American television series debuts 2010s American reality television series 2012 American television series endings Television shows set in Philadelphia Television shows set in Detroit Television shows set in Rhode Island Parking law English-language television shows