There's a ticket war breaking out on city streets, and it's not pretty.

City parking enforcement officers, who leave their calling card in the form of an orange-

colored parking ticket stuffed beneath a windshield wiper blade, are themselves getting

ticketed.

Buffalo police officers have been issuing them vehicle and traffic tickets for failure to

wear seat belts, parking enforcement officers are complaining.

Some police officers, apparently upset at being issued parking tickets on their privately

owned vehicles when they park in restricted areas outside Police Headquarters downtown, have

retaliated while on duty by paying close attention to the driving habits of parking

enforcement officers.

"We're having a ticket war. The police have ticketed some of us for not wearing our seat

belts," a parking enforcement officer said this week.

It has reached the point where the city corporation counsel's office stepped in and issued

a ruling that parking enforcers driving city vehicles are exempt from wearing seat belts.

A recently issued police memo to patrol officers states:

"The City of Buffalo Parking Violations Bureau drivers operate "emergency vehicles' in the

course of their duties as defined by state vehicle and traffic law. Their city vehicles are

used to enforce city ordinances.

"Therefore under N.Y. V&T Section 1229-C[4], they are exempt from the legal requirement of

wearing a seat belt while operating the City of Buffalo Parking Violations Bureau vehicles."

The memo politely goes on to inform police officers to make nice with the folks who write

parking tickets:

"All personnel shall observe and respond appropriately to any situations involving the City

of Buffalo Parking Violations Bureau during the course of their duties."

Leonard G. Sciolino, director of the city's Division of Parking Enforcement, declined to

comment.

Several of the city's 15 parking enforcement officers, in the last two years, have received

tickets for moving violations from city police officers, according to authorities.

The memo to police officers, however, may not spell the end to the friction.

The individual who provided The Buffalo News with a copy of the memo says the corporation

counsel's office has it wrong.

"With all due respect, ... parking enforcement vehicles are not emergency vehicles,

according to N.Y. V&T law and as such the operator of a parking enforcement vehicle is subject

to all N.Y. V&T laws," the individual wrote.

That may be true.

In Section 101 of the state Vehicle and Traffic Law, where the term "emergency vehicle" is

defined, there is no mention of parking enforcement vehicles.

Stay tuned.