For the second year in a row, there were fewer parking meter violations than the year before in Lakewood.

More than 500 fewer. 

According to the recently released Lakewood Police Department’s annual review, the number of metered parking violations has continued to drop since 2009, when the number peaked at 4,434. 

In 2011, there were 3,420 cited meter violations, down 546 from the year before.

One of the reasons for the decrease is that the number of fulltime parking enforcements officers dropped from three in 2009 to two in 2011.

Perhaps another reason for the drop in citations is that people are paying the meter more. 

"Issuing more tickets could result in increased feeding of the meters," said police chief Timothy Malley. "Less tickets, more collections."

Parking meter revenue was up, from $434,509 in 2010 to $458,184 in 2011.

Police-issued tickets are also down, possibly because of a "lack of substantial snow bans, which can account for a large number," said Malley, "as well is the decline in the popularity of some of the night spots, which used to generate many parking tickets."

(The complete data for officers-issued tickets was not immediately available. In 2009, there were 6,744 tickets were issued by police officers — in addition to the 4,434 tickets issued at the meter)