Stop saving parking spots in the snow: Philly cops say #NoSavesies

Forget parking tickets. The Philadelphia Police Department is using the hashtag #NoSavesies to prevent citizens from illegally saving parking spots.

With #NoSavesies, the PPD wants to tackle the issue of illegal parking spot saving. The clever hashtag has gotten the department props from the Twittersphere.

Saving parking spots is a citywide issue, according to Sgt. Eric Gripp, who runs the department’s social media and createad #NoSavesies.

“Saving parking spots has been a ‘tradition’ here since the advent of the automobile,” he wrote in an email. “What a lot of people don’t know, however, is that the practice is illegal.”

In Philadelphia, the space in front of resident homes belongs to the city, not the homeowner. (The sidewalk, however, belongs to the resident.)

So after using a few “unsuccessful” tweets to remind citizens that saving spots is illegal, Gripp wanted to try something else.

“I figured I had to do something to get the tweets gaining traction.” So he included #NoSavesies at the end of a tweet and “it kinda spread from there.”

Gripp, who’s been with the Police Department for more than 12 years, was previously a sergeant with the 22nd District, which covers parts of Temple University’s campus. He describes himself as the PPD’s “baron of social & digital media/poet laureate.”

Asked when his interest in social media started, he wrote: “Wow. Does Usenet count?”

Here are some examples of the hashtag as used by the Philly Police:

The alternative hashtag #Savesies is also popular among diehard spot-savers around the city. But many seem to think the PPD’s hashtag is doing its job:

Even Thor, the tweeting police dog, supports the #NoSavesies movement.

Spoken like a true poet laureate, Gripp said this about Thor: “I have grown so powerful on Twitter that my dream of being Cyrano de Bergerac for a tweeting dog has finally been realized!”

The PPD has used social media to their advantage before:

• Thor, their adorable police dog is on Twitter and also serves as a crowd-pleasing extension of the Philadelphia Police Department and their social media presence (Thor was even featured on Fox29 and the front page of the Daily News)
• 36 cops were on Twitter as of last summer
• 20 percent of police tips came through social media, the Police Department reported last April.

Even the Philadelphia Fire Department has used public safety hashtags before, like well-loved but squashed #NotOnFire.

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