Parking enforcement officer facts for kids
A parking enforcement officer (PEO), traffic warden (British English), parking inspector/parking officer (Australia and New Zealand), or civil enforcement officer is a member of a traffic control agency, local government, or police force who issues tickets for parking violations. The term parking attendant is sometimes considered a synonym but sometimes used to refer to the different profession of parking lot attendant.
Contents
By country
Canada
In Canada, parking enforcement duties are frequently handled under the umbrella of bylaw enforcement by bylaw enforcement officers. No jurisdictions remain where persons employed for the purpose of enforcing traffic bylaws are referred to as "meter maids" and increasingly fewer offices of "parking enforcement officer" exist. Most officials once employed as PEOs are now utilized to perform a variety of bylaw enforcement duties, often including animal control or the enforcement of other bylaws. The position is increasingly upgraded to that of the more professional position of bylaw enforcement officer. Common duties of bylaw enforcement officers include parking enforcement, property and zoning regulation, and regulation of general conduct of persons in public. Bylaw officers, however, only have the power to issue civil citations as such as penalties for most municipal bylaw violations.
The cities of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver still employ officials with the title of parking enforcement officer. In the case of Montreal and Toronto, PEOs are a sub-division of their respective police force : the Montreal SPVM (where they are nicknamed "green onions" due to their formerly green uniforms) and the Toronto Police Service (where they have been nicknamed 'blue hornets' because of their blue uniform stripe, which is red on police officers' uniforms). In Vancouver's case, PEOs are employees of the municipal government, not affiliated with the Vancouver Police Department.
Canadian parking enforcement officers are de facto peace officers while in the performance of their duties and inasmuch as that designation is required for the performance of their duties, even if they are not sworn officers or constables. Case law has upheld this legal interpretation. See bylaw enforcement officer for case-law excerpts. This means that assault on a Canadian parking enforcement officer or bylaw officer conducting traffic bylaw enforcement is punishable under the Criminal Code of Canada as assault on a peace officer and carries higher penalties than standard assault.
In some areas in Canada, parking enforcement services are subcontracted to a private organization, such as the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires. However these facilities are usually privately owned parking lots and garage. Although some large municipalities have long standing agreements.
Toronto is deploying traffic wardens to help with congestion at major intersections in the city beginning in early 2018. Their focus is to expedite flow of cars and pedestrians at problem intersections, where they will replace use of Toronto police officers in the same role.
Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, parking enforcement officers are employed by councils to enforce laws relating to the parking and stopping of motor vehicles. They were introduced by the Local Authorities (Traffic Wardens) Act 1975. Under the Road Traffic Acts, traffic wardens are empowered to issue on the spot parking tickets and fines for non-display of a tax disc. It is an offence to refuse to provide your name and address when demanded to do so by a traffic warden.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, a local authority may appoint a person to hold the office of parking warden. Parking wardens have jurisdiction on a public road within the local authority's region, and are warranted upon appointment to enforce parking offences and special vehicle lane offences. The fines for various parking offences are considerably lower than many other places around the world, with fines as low as $12 for minor offences. Parking wardens may direct people to remove their vehicle off a public road if it causes an obstruction on the road or to any vehicle entrance, or if it is desirable in the interests of road safety or the interests of the Public. They can also (for the reasons just mentioned) authorize the towing of vehicles on a public road. Similar to Ireland, it is an offence in certain circumstances if the driver or person in charge of a vehicle refuses to provide their details when required to do so by a parking warden.
The term 'parking warden' is considered to be a misnomer, as they deal with matters more than just parking, especially as the law also empowers them to enforce certain moving violations, such as unauthorised use of a special vehicle lane.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom (UK), traffic wardens have historically, since the 1960s, been employed by the territorial police force to help with traffic management and parking regulations. Their origins in the UK can be traced back to the work of Athelstan Popkess who in 1959 proposed the idea of "a body of men, eager for police work, but barred by height or age to deal with trifling motoring offences like illegal parking and obstruction" to the Home Secretary Ernest Marples and his professional colleagues. He took the idea from a scheme already in existence in South Africa.
Now 'Parking Attendants' and 'Civil Enforcement Officers' are used by local authorities to pursue decriminalised parking enforcement and thus almost everywhere replaced the "traffic warden", who was part of a police force.
See also
- Traffic police
- State police
- Traffic guard
- Highway patrol
- Traffic ticket
- Car guard
