Police are cracking down on pedestrians walking through Prospect Park's Parade Ground after dusk, despite the paucity of signage alerting visitors of the rules.
While Prospect Park itself is closed only from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the adjoining Parade Ground—a small outcropping of sports fields to the park's southeast—apparently shuts down when night falls. Corinne Martin, a spokeswoman for Prospect Park Alliance, said there are eight signs positioned at each of the Parade Ground entrances notifying visitors of its early closing time.
But Geoffrey McFarlane, who has lived in the area for five years, said he had no idea the grounds closed so early—until he was slapped with a summons on Tuesday.
McFarlane, who was one of five other pedestrians to receive citations around 11:15 p.m., told Ditmas Park Corner he was simply strolling through to cut time off his journey, and saw no signs with any mention of open or close times at the entrance. Turns out it was inside the park, around a block and a half away.
“It’s very surprising to get a ticket for what is essentially walking through an obvious footpath with no gate, and no apparent signage indicating that no one is permitted past a certain time," he told the news site.
McFarlane was also annoyed about the sneaky nature of the apparent ticketing blitz.
"A warning would be nice,” he told CBS New York. “Maybe park right over here where there’s great parking spaces for police vehicles, and when people try to walk in, just let them know, ‘Hey, park’s closed!’”
Martin said Alliance employees went out on Monday to check on the locations of the signs, though she's uncertain what came of the expedition.
As for the crackdown, she said that while the Alliance often works with the 78th Precinct, she's uncertain what prompted the cops to crack down now.
