NYPD has that too, as well as school crossing guards, school security officers, etc. I am sure the parking enforcement people stick to where there is metered parking. LEOs obviously know how to write tickets too.
My experience, 31 years worth, is totally contrary to the claims of the first two sentences of item #1 as well as the last sentence of the same paragraph. I would say the percentages are very low for both allegations.
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Presumably they can, even if it not a priority unless the illegal parking is particularly obnoxious.
Or unless they are looking for a pretext.
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You do consistently assume the worst of LEOs.
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Tough to do with an empty vehicle.
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I think I consistently assume that LEO’s act like LEOs. Are you denying that sometimes LEO’s act on (alleged) minor infractions to serve other purposes or to pursue other hunches?
For example, I recently got aggressively pulled over on a dangerous interchange between two extremely busy freeways, by officers (not highway patrol) who engaged in some sketchy maneuvers to even get behind me, and backup showed up immediately. When they approached the car, they were visibly surprised when I wasn’t who they apparently expected. They told me they had pulled me over on a suspected seat belt violation 
(we were wearing seatbelts) and they let me go without even checking my license/reg.
No harm no foul, I guess, but it was so obviously a pretext stop that I almost felt sorry for whoever it was that made the decision to tearing across five lanes of bumper to bumper traffic to go after me, except that the stop wasn’t all that safe even if I had done something wrong.
Not all traffic tickets are given to empty vehicles, and sometimes traffic tickets can lead to more drastic measures, like warrants, impoundments, etc. LEOs use whatever resources they have, and if an LEO is writing a traffic ticket it is a pretty good bet there is more to it than the infraction.
Most parking tickets are, which is what we were talking about.
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I hope you really mean almost. What if your car fit the description of someone who just killed dozens of kids in a school? If that had happened to me, I would have assumed that my vehicle matched someone who had done something very bad.
My mom once came home from work and noticed a policeman following her, but doing nothing else. And then another, and nothing. By the time she got home she heard a helicopter flying overhead. When she opened her door, they all had guns drawn. Once they saw who she was, they apologized and left. She (we) had a VERY unique van. In it’s 30+ year history, I’ve only seen a couple of others just like it and it apparently matched the description of someone who had done something terrible. She was shaken, but not upset at the officers.
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I thought what we were talking about the circumstances when an LEO would choose to waste their time writing a parking ticket. In my opinion, that happens when the LEO’s have some other reason other than an expired meter. Seems pretty obvious to me, but apparently that must mean I hate cops. 
No doubt they thought I was someone else, and like I said no harm, no foul. But that makes their stop for a “seatbelt violation” a pretext stop, based on a flat out lie. That’s how LEO works. That’s the reality. Given we seem to agree on this, I’m not sure our point of disagreement.
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Well, as a person who drove around downtown Boston for 15+ years everyday, whenever a parking enforcement person approached me while I was in the car(definitely parked illegally) I just drove away. No one gets chased for a parking infraction. You can’t be detained for a parking ticket. I got well over $10,000 in parking tickets during those years. I’m familiar with the process.
Maybe you should park legally 
Were you driving a work vehicle or personal vehicle (or personal vehicle for work)
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I’m not complaining. It was a cost of doing business. It was actually cheaper than putting the car in a garage.
It is surprising how many ‘law abiding citizens’ don’t believe they have to follow the law when breaking the law is cheaper and/or more convenient.
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But the areas were not available for parking for a reason (close to curb, loading zone, school area, fire hydrant, etc). Did that not matter to you?
It was all double parking and loading zones to run into a customer’s establishment for something, no hydrants, certainly no handicap spaces, etc.
At least I don’t get pulled over by the cops. Did you lawyer up when that happened? I hope you didn’t talk.
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That sounds less like a pretext stop (stopping for a minor violation in hopes of finding something bigger) than the police misidentifying your vehicle as one being driven by a known suspect (i.e. your vehicle resembles the getaway vehicle in a crime, or was misidentified as stolen). But that suggest that they lied about the reason.
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But to rack up $10K in tickets plus all the times you left when you were illegally parked to avoid more tickets, that must have been more than a “run in to a customer’s establishment to get something”. Sorry, but that’s not something justifiable, IMO.