As KFOX reported, Constable Pete Melendez had been illegally parked next to a hydrant for nearly two hours Wednesday. After being told KFOX was waiting for him outside, Melendez moved his car and said he never saw the hydrant.

"I just couldn't believe him," East El Paso resident and retired firefighter Ysidro Barrera said. "Being a peace officer, he's trained to see everything around him. A hydrant that tall, the yellow painting on the sidewalk led me to believe that he wasn't being fully truthful."

Barrera spent three hours on the phone Thursday, trying to report Melendez to a number of agencies, including the Texas Ethics Commission.

We showed the complaints of KFOX viewers to El Paso Police Chief Richard Wiles, who said under state law, marked emergency vehicles are exempt from parking restrictions, since these vehicles need to go anywhere in times of emergency.

"Really the issue is: How do we know when they're on an emergency or not? I don't think you would want my parking enforcer standing there for two hours while the constable's in the meeting to check to see whether he's there on some emergency," Wiles said.

Wiles urges the public to report parking violations involving officers immediately.