It appears channel 5’s reporter Leisa Zigman didn’t feel reportery enough so she got out her fedora, tucked her press pass in the band and went off to uncover a scandal! Long story short, she didn’t find one. Instead, Zigman decided to do a “report” on St. Louis police officers parking in no-parking spaces throughout the city, including in front of their own station! [Editor’s Note: Dun dun daaaaaaaaa!]
Zigman’s piece hasn’t aired yet, but we are assuming its going to be as boring as it sounds with an “in your face” interview of some poor cop PR person trying to answer Zigman’s questions while trying not to swallow the camera in his face.
You know what’s not boring though? The fact since the cops are obviously wise to the report, they are pissed and have started ticketing every KSDK car they can find! There is also one crazy long thread going on at the local police message board, starting with this post:
Got some information I thought would be useful to all around H.Q. about the newest news story from our friends at Ch 5 (Lisa Zigmann).
The next big hard hitting story to come out of the Ch 5 is going to be a story on police parking at H.Q. or should I say illegal parking…I guess they have nothing better to do with their time.
I watched Lisa interview Erica Van Ross today out in front of H.Q. Here is the few things that I could overhear….
*When questioned about why the police, who are empowered to enforce parking violations are parking illegally, Ms. Van Ross advised that the job of a PO is more important than a parking space and that often they are dropping off important evidence or bringing suspects in to be interviewed and that they should not have to be worried about driving around for an hour looking for a parking space when they have a suspect that may be willing to talk in the back seat.
*Lisa also asked about parking at City hall provided on their lot. Ms. Van Ross quickly responded by telling her that the PD pays for the parking in the city hall lot and noted that it comes out of a budget that has already been cut by over 20 million dollars.
*Ms. Van Ross reminded her that parking in the area is a challenge and as proof she offered up the fact that the media often parks illegally in front of H.Q.
*Please be careful because while I wasn’t all that close I saw them shooting video of personal cars parked and I wouldn’t put it past them to try to find out who owned the cars.
This post was quickly followed up with this post:
Please run the story. I’ve been doing this job for 25 years and news vehicles never park properly. We as Police Officers always turn a blind eye because we know they are doing their jobs. If they want to play this game, bring it on.
And as if Zigman didn’t already have the cops hating her, she might have other local news people on her ass too, since she may have ended the News People vs Cops parking cold war: (also from the cop message board):
Channel Four is the worst of them all. They have 5-10 cars and vans parked illegally on Market almost all day long. When officers try to enforce it, calls to the Chief’s Office ends any more tickets
Oh and Lesia? Its looks like you have a tail light out…