Around 5 p.m. every weekday two Ottawa police cars park beside one another just off Elgin Street on a small street called Jack Purcell Lane, situated in front of Jack Purcell Community Centre. Then they wait, usually with coffees in hand. The building on the corner shields them from street viewers and the central location provides an ideal outpost to wait for calls from dispatch. The cops, however, are not behind most of the infractions that occur on Jack Purcell Lane.

In the first six months and six days of 2015, 368 parking tickets have been given out to cars sitting on Jack Purcell Lane. The lane, which is more of an alleyway, stretches less than half a city block and only covers just over 20 city-patrolled parking spots. Many people who use those spots work or go to the community centre on a daily basis, but others enjoy the dog park and playground area that surround the centre.

On one cold Tuesday evening in particular, a white Ottawa parking services vehicle rounded the corner of the lane just after six o’clock. After inspecting each car and finding an un-validated silver Honda, a parking attendant who requested not to be named, called out and asked if the car belonged to anyone in the dog park. It did, and the woman in question hurried into the community centre to validate her car.

“We always do that, we always give people a chance,” said the officer when asked why he had let her off the hook. However, it was the officer’s first day of work in the area.

The combination of the community centre, the public recreation areas and the close access to Elgin makes the strip of Jack Purcell Lane an ideal spot and when officers make the trip out, there’s usually more than one offender to speak for. There have been 16 days in which there was only one ticket issued on the lane. All other days on which a ticket was issued, there were multiple, often at different times of the day.

Jeffrey Russell knows this all too well. In trying to find a spot to park on a Saturday with his wife and preteen son, he bristled when the payment toll wouldn’t accept his card. Of course that was because it was a weekend, but Russell had been spurned in the area before. “They just prowl the street I swear. Godamn city,” he said with a laugh. “See? It’s even a Saturday and I’m worried about it.”

Of the spots allocated on Jack Purcell Lane, three are designated for vehicles with an Accessible Parking Permit (APP), while there are large spaces in front of the centre to accommodate Para Transpo vehicles. These are needed spaces, as Kelly Fox, a student working with the city of Ottawa in the special needs unit of the parks, recreation and culture division notes. “Jack Purcell is the only such facility in Ottawa that has extensive programs for seniors with disabilities, so as a result we send a large number of them there.”

While city rules require any parking spot with 20 or more spaces to have at least one parking spot for the disabled, the functions of Jack Purcell Community Centre result in more APP spots, culminating in a crowded parking area with more people willing to risk a ticket for a spot.