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.
Indonesia In
Indonesia, traffic wardens, also known as parking enforcement officers, are under the
Ministry of Transportation and are known as
Dinas Perhubungan abbreviated "
Dishub" or
Dinas Lalu Lintas dan Angkutan Jalan Raya abbreviated "
LLAJR" (Road Traffic and Transportation Agency). Besides enforcing parking regulations, they also assist the
traffic police in directing
traffic and enforce law and regulations towards
public transportation vehicles such as public buses, taxis, trucks, etc. which use yellow license plates. They are usually stationed in public transportation terminals and posted at various roadways of the country and wear light blue as their uniform.
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. However, abuse and violence against officers is common, resulting in some councils adopting body worn cameras for them. 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. 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.
Public perception Accusations of overzealousness on the part of parking attendants is likely due to high pressure management focused around delivering a certain number of tickets per day, leading to allegations of corruption and illegality. This brings accusations that their real purpose is to raise revenue for the local authority rather than keep the traffic moving. Those who receive fines argue that the "punishment does not fit the crime," pointing to the size of fines levied for minor parking violations in comparison with fines generally issued for more serious motoring offences or other offences such as shoplifting. Public dislike of parking attendants in the UK is such that some parking attendants have been stabbed, received death threats, and been issued stab-proof vests and cotton swabs to take
DNA samples when members of the public spit on them, for later prosecution.
Enforcement of laws dealing with the parking of motor vehicles in the UK can be the responsibility of one or more of the following persons: Public •
Civil enforcement officers (
England,
Wales,
Scotland), including those previously known as parking attendants (whose duties might still be limited to parking contraventions or might now be extended to other road traffic contraventions where a local authority has chosen to do so), are employed by local authorities or a contractor providing their services to a local authority. Since the advent of
decriminalised parking enforcement, they have largely replaced [police] traffic wardens as the primary enforcers of parking regulations. They have the power to issue
penalty charge notices (PCNs) for parking contraventions dealt with by ss.63-79
Road Traffic Act 1991; in areas where their duties have been extended beyond that of a parking attendant they can also issue PCNs for parking offences coming under other legislation such as e.g. parking a vehicle entirely on a footway or the parking of a detached vehicle trailer or skip. •
Traffic attendants (
Northern Ireland) issue parking offence penalty charge notices (i.e. a civil penalty not a criminal penalty) for the
Roads Service using powers under the
Traffic Management (Northern Ireland) Order 2005. •
Traffic wardens are employees of
police forces and are primarily responsible for controlling traffic in general using powers available to
authorised persons defined in the
Road Traffic Act 1988. Their usage for parking enforcement is far less common since the advent of decriminalised parking enforcement which in many areas transferred the enforcement of offences concerning simple parking in controlled areas to
local authorities; other parking offences such as any involving penalty points and/or those not involving the 1991 Act (or equivalent in Northern Ireland) remain enforceable by traffic wardens. Traffic wardens in the
Metropolitan Police could be promoted to traffic warden supervisor, traffic warden controller, senior traffic warden controller, and area traffic warden controller. Most "traffic wardens" are now non-existent and have, in almost all areas, been replaced by
local authority civil enforcement officers/parking wardens/parking attendants etc. (Often abbreviated to PCN
although not to be confused with Penalty Charge Notices which are issued by Civil enforcement officers) for infringements such as parking outside marked bays or over staying limited duration. The
British Parking Association (BPA) act as the industry body for parking operators. Landowners and agents who pursue private parking charges through the courts do so on the basis of trespass the BPA issue guidance to facilitate this through the use of onsite signage. Digital permit systems and mobile license plate recognition (LPR) technology can be used to monitor parking spaces and record violations, providing a more systematic approach to private parking management. The
BPA's Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice (a guide for its members who operate enforcement in private car parks), section 27.1, says that: {{Blockquote ==In popular culture==