Parking Ticket in Private parking lot

I recently received a parking ticket (Illegal parking / Fire Zone) in Fort Bend Co., Texas in a private parking facility (parking lot of a grocery store). I was later told by a retired police officer friend that the officer probably did not have jurisdiction, since the ticket was not issued on public property. However, the clerk at the Justice of the Peace Court said that she thinks that the officer does have jurisdiction in private parking lots to write tickets in fire zones and handicap zones. How can I find out for certain?

If the location on private property is regulated by governmental codes/ordinances and traffic laws such as handicap parking stalls, loading zones, fire zones etc., then the police officer has jurisdiction to issue tickets. If the officer was not so authorized, no one would follow the
respective signage and road rage would expand to include parking rage.

Thanks for your reply - makes sense!

You are welcome. Did you know that if your vehicle was parked in and/or blocking a fire zone and the fire dept. needed to use the zone in an emergency, they have the right to use their fire truck and ram your vehicle out of the way. If you sued for damages to your vehicle, you would lose.

And you can be forced to pay for any damages to the fire truck. An aquaintance parked to close to a fire hydrant and the fire dept. used a hose to pull her car out of the way. The hose was damaged because of this and she had to pay $300 for a new one.