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.
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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This happens more often than you think. If a ticket is issued to your license plate you will always receive a notice in the mail (where your car is registered to) telling you that you have an outstanding ticket and your options for either paying the fine, or setting a court date. It is still a legal ticket and you will have to decide whether to pay or fight it. If you don't do either and leave the fine outstanding, it could come back to haunt you when you go to renew your plates. There have been times where people receive notices in the mail for outstanding tickets, when they haven't actually ever been to that address. If this is the case then there might be an error on the officers part, (by messing up on the license plate) and you should go to a first appearance facility to straighten it out.
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If the officer who issued the ticket does not attend court, then the case is withdrawn.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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LOL...I hadn't seen that video before now. I personally wouldn't lose it on a "good Samaritan" but there's only so much you can do before you lose your cool. Obviously this was just done to cause a reaction and it worked. I've heard of this situation occurring to a coworker. A man took it upon himself to jump ahead of the officer in an attempt to mess with them. It can be cute at first but this situation lasted way longer than necessary, and at the end of the day the person is just messing with someone's livelihood: would you like it it someone was affecting your ability to work? So no, i wouldnt come down on a good samaritan who was refreshing expired meters, but maybe i would react differently if this person was following and harassing me for an over extended period of time.
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There are many different kinds of disabled parking zones in Toronto, so it's hard for me to tell what you got the ticket for. I've only ever seen one disabled zone that stated specific times and days in all of the areas I have worked in, so you may be correct. You always have a chance to fight things in court, so I suggest you set a court date. I always recommend that individuals who receive parking tickets in disabled parking zones set court dates, regardless of whether they plead guilty or not guilty since the fine is $450. If you have a chance you should also go back to the area you received the ticket and even review the signs before your court date. If you are still unsure you can also ask to speak to the officer who issued you the ticket when you check in with the prosecutor. At the very least, pleading guilty can help with getting the fine reduced.
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If someone is sitting in their car, at an expired meter, I usually walk right by them. So no, I wouldn't give you a ticket. Technically if you are parked at expired meter you can receive a ticket, but as a courtesy we don't really give anyone grief. If you are taking up a space that someone is looking to use, that's when I would ask someone to move or feed the meter. If there is a refusal to do so, that's when I would issue a ticket.
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People assume that we wait around for meters/receipts to expire, but in reality we don't have that much time on our hands. If I am doing a loop of a street and I remember that a certain car is about to expire I may go back to it on my way back to my car, but I don't just sit at a car and wait to ticket it. In the city of Toronto we give a five minute grace period for expired receipts. There has recently been some talk of extending it to ten minutes, but I think that is just overkill. If people know they may need some extra time they should be parking in parking lots with a flat rate, and leaving the street parking for people who need a spot to quickly go about their business. As for your question about quotas...I answered this earlier this year. We don't have quotas in Toronto, but we do have a performance standard that we have to attain. 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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