Fairfax County has been ticketing cars for needing inspection, while waiting in line to be inspected. WTF?

"willkinton247" (willkinton247)
10/13/2015 at 15:07 • Filed to: None

In today’s edition of dealing with Police in Northern Virginia, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was published by the Washington Post. I’m absolutely baffled.

From the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the Northern VA subreddit,

“Holy shit I’ve interacted with this Hogue lady before. She kept tailing me in her Crown Vic (which looks like an unmarked police car, with the laptop on the dash) until I pulled over at the Giant in Vienna. She said I was going too fast and if I was in Fairfax County, she would have pulled me over. I explained that she was tailing me and I was trying to lose her because that was suspicious as fuck, and she said “next time you are being tailed, call 911 and they will explain that I am a police officer.” (actually good advice)

Problem was, she wasn’t a cop, and I didn’t realize that until I later called FCPD to file a complaint about her behavior. I explained the issue and the Lieutenant was perplexed because “Vienna is in our jurisdiction, FCPD can pull you over there even in town limits.” When I gave her plates, he said “ummm that’s parking enforcement.” I had my dashcam running, so although you couldn’t see her, you could hear her saying she was a police officer and all this other shit. I got in touch with Lt. Long, her supervisor, and he basically said that she wasn’t totally lying because VA Code grants them the title of “conservators of the peace” which is sort of the same thing... but he agreed that she was acting totally inappropriately.

TL;DR this specific ‘officer’ is fucking overzealous and thinks she’s hot shit and has been formally reprimanded before.

EDIT: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! [1] I realized I’m not under any obligation to not share it. I sound like a little bitch, but that’s because until after she left I actually thought she was a cop and I was just trying to polite my way out of a ticket.”

What the hell is wrong with this woman? Why hasn’t she been fired?

DISCUSSION (19)

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:11

Virginia - Not even once.

Nick > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:12

that’s why i don’t drive near DC. just hop on the metro. it’s not worth the hassle of driving in that nightmare of a city.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:16

That woman needs to get fired.

Coty > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:17

Kinja'd!!!

She looked exactly like I expected.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:18

Here the rule is you can drive the car to inspection legally as long as you can prove you have an appointment to have the inspection done.

duurtlang > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
10/13/2015 at 15:22

We have the same rule. You can even do so on a (newly) imported used car that hasn’t been registered yet. You request an official (free) temp 1-day plate which you then create yourself with a piece of cardboard and a marker, which is legal on the way from your home to the inspection place on the day of your appointment.

jariten1781 > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:22

I don’t understand the Post story at all...the way it sounds is that the vehicles are left on the lot awaiting repairs then ticketed (ie, not idling in line to get an solely compliant car inspected). The owner also says he does it first thing in the morning so there’s no expired stickers, but sometimes it takes longer to fix...um which can’t happen because failing just gives you a reject sticker exempting you from inspect for X days.

Not that they should be pinging cars on private property for technical violations (regardless of what the letter they have allows), but sounds like these are sketchball shops they’re prowling.

wiffleballtony > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:26

No side arm? Not law enforcement.

willkinton247 > jariten1781
10/13/2015 at 15:28

What happens is customers will drop their cars off to be inspected, and while the cars are awaiting inspection the parking enforcement people swoop in and ticket the cars.

The owner says that in response, he tries to get it done first thing in the morning, but that doesn’t always work perfectly, because sometimes he can’t get them all done before the woman shows up. That shop owner also has been paying the tickets of his customers to prevent her from doing it. The other shops in that area have also had the same issues, to the point where if they see her coming, they try to get as many cars inside garages as possible.

Not every inspection station has a line where people idle and wait for their cars. I hate waiting for my cars to be inspected anyways. I always just drop them off and then pick them up when they are done.

jariten1781 > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:41

Yeah, just reads odd to me. If enforcement is a known issue he could just throw on reject stickers as they drop them off. PITA, but less annoying than explaining the ticket to the customer and paying out of pocket. There’s also trip permits I suppose if it’s really continuous.

Also, I know it looks like I’m siding with the enforcement group...I’m not, just doesn’t align with how I’ve seen things. Mostly I suppose I was taking issue with the ‘in line’ verbiage, and the whole thing just reads odd and foreign to me.

I usually just go in at lunch around the 15th of the month it expires to one of the billion gas stations that does them. Typically in and out in <20 mins. No one’s ever getting inspections in the middle of the month and the gas station garages rarely have jobs going.

What they should really do is switch from allowing the FCPD to enforce their lot and just have a tow company issue tickets and move cars. Then they can parse out exactly what/when/where they want it enforced rather than relying on the county to do things.

Klaus Schmoll > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:44

In Germany we have a word for this (who would have known...) “Bademeistersyndrom” or pool supervisor syndrome. Give someone with a rather mediocre job a bit of power and they sometimes tend to squeeze every little inch out of that. Can also be displayed in caretakers (look at him wrong once and your office is a freezing hell), office assistants (your paperwork is always the last to get processed), etc....

Dr. Strangegun > willkinton247
10/13/2015 at 15:47

Sounds like repair guy needed to invest in some car covers instead of continuing to pay bills... ‘parking and code enforcement’ is one thing, fat-fingering private property to uncover a covered vehicle is another.