Parking enforcement officer

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. In the United States, even where parking meters are no longer used, the term "meter maid" is often still used to refer to female PEOs. On 9 December 2007, the mayor of Stockholm, Mikael Söderlund, announced that the tasks of the parking enforcement officers will be broadened to include fining graffiti vandals and litterers. Trade union representatives say these officers are not prepared to take on new tasks, already stretched by metering vehicles, and that they fear the risk of violence. Those authorities in England that invested in vehicles with onboard computer and camera equipment have also begun policing bus lanes. With the combination of the role of parking attendants in some areas of Great Britain into that of civil enforcement officers, many now routinely issue fixed penalties for such offences as littering, public drinking, anti-social behaviour and noise violations in addition to dealing with nuisance parking offences which previously escaped the attention of parking attendants as they contravened legislation other than the Road Traffic Act 1991. Nevertheless, the National Careers Service does not list any of these new tasks. Parking wardens in New Zealand are also empowered by law to enforce the use of special vehicle lanes, such as bus and transit lanes. 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.

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Related concepts (6)

Traffic police

Traffic police (also known as traffic officers, traffic enforcement units, traffic cops, traffic monitors, or traffic enforcers) are police officers, units, and agencies who enforce traffic laws and manage traffic. Traffic police include police who patrol highways, direct traffic, and address traffic infractions. They may be a separate agency from a main police agency, a unit or division within a police agency, or a type of assignment issued to officers; they can also be part of a transportation authority or highway authority.

Traffic stop

A traffic stop, commonly referred to as being pulled over, is a temporary detention of a driver of a vehicle and its occupants by police to investigate a possible crime or minor violation of law. A traffic stop is usually considered to be a Terry stop and, as such, is a seizure by police; the standard set by the United States Supreme Court in Terry v. Ohio regarding temporary detentions requires only reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime has occurred or is about to occur.

Traffic guard

Traffic guards, also known as traffic controllers and flaggers, are trained to set up warning signs and barricades to slow down the speed of traffic in a temporary traffic control zone. When they are on scene they will set up equipment to warn approaching traffic about the incident. Traffic guards use a variety of equipment: Signal flags. Signal hand sign; called stop/slow paddles in the United States, these are a sign that has 'stop' on one side and 'slow' or 'go' on the other side. Traffic vest.