Meter-Made
Toronto, ON
Female, 30
I currently work as a Parking Enforcement Officer in the wonderful city of Toronto. I am feared, and loathed by all. I may not work in your particular city, but I'm positive that I can help give you a better understanding of what Meter Maids do. I am knowledgeable in all parking matters so ask me anything.
There's not too much I can do except place the ticket on the windshield. Car alarms go off all the time. People even intentionally set off their alarms in order to scare us, and or show that they are coming back to their vehicle. If an alarm does happen to go off based on the fact that I am placing a ticket on it, I go on my way and hope that the alarm will eventually turn itself off.
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Parking officers don't carry any weapons in the city of Toronto. To the best of my knowledge they never have.
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I would be pretty difficult to spot a forgery on a pay and display receipt, simply because we don't actually get to see them up close. I have seen people try to use receipts from previous years, months etc. but fake slips have never seemed to be an issue in Toronto. I feel that it would be easy to spot a fake, simply because they might miss a vital piece of information that is on a slip, like the day of the year or the street that it was purchased from. Whoever has the patience to sit and make a slip for every area they will be visiting in a day would have a lot of spare time on their hands. It would take more effort to make a forgery than it would to spend a couple of dollars to park on a city street.
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If you are parked at an actual parking meter (not a pay and display machine) and it it out of order, you will more than likely get a ticket. In Toronto, the bylaw clearly states that no one should park next to a broken meter. If you are parked near a pay and display machine, and it is not in working order, the same rule applies, but you may use any machine on that given street to purchase a receipt. If you are on a street that only has one pay and display machine, it might be best to find parking elsewhere. There really is no such thing as free parking in larger cities like Toronto, so when in doubt, don't park there at all. We are not responsible for maintaining the machines, therefore it is hard for us to notice that a meter or a pay and display machine is broken. If you have received a ticket because of a broken meter or pay and display machine there is now an online dispute process (http://www.toronto.ca/pay-toronto-tickets/disputes.htm). Unfortunately this process is not yet available for any other infractions.
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I don't think anyone wishes to be a meter maid when they grow up. Neither do I. I simply see this job as a stepping stone for a future in law enforcement. In Toronto, the Parking Enforcement Unit is part of the Toronto Police Service, and therefore a great way to gain an internal role within the service. I don't know if any of my coworkers find this job emotionally fulfilling, as I find it quite draining. This job is simply a job. Parking Officers are required in order to ensure that traffic flows safely and to answer the parking complaints of the public. It can be fulfilling at times, when you help someone remove an unwanted vehicle from their property, or clear obstructions to their driveway, but we're not exactly saving the world either.
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If the officer who issued the ticket does not attend court, then the case is withdrawn. So yes, you win. However, we are required to attend court, and will more than likely be there. The only time we do not attend court is if we are scheduled to be on leave, we are sick or if there is a shortage of officers on duty and we are required to work.
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We do not have a quota. We do have a performance standard that we have to attain to show that we are actually out there working. The city has calculated the average ticket number in every area in the city, and officers assigned to these zones should be getting roughly the same amount as their counterparts on different shifts.
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