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.
Most of the time people jokingly offer to give me something to make their ticket go away, but there have been a few instances where people attempted to bribe me. The most common one would be to offer me money, sometimes more than what the ticket is worth. I have also been offered food and drinks (including a 6 pack of beer). When people start to haggle with me, I usually walk away to avoid this type of situation altogether.
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As long as the meter has been paid you are legally parked, at least that is the case in Toronto. The city has a three hour maximum at meters which mainly means that you can only pay for blocks of three hours at a time. This means as long as you continue to pay you are legally parked.
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Assuming you live in Ontario you must contact the Ministry of Transportation, through Service Ontario. They are the ones who issue Accessible Parking Permits. If you indeed have a legitimate reason for obtaining a permit, and you have a doctors recomendation you should go to the MTO. Everything you need to know is on their web page:
http://www.ontario.ca/driving-and-roads/under-what-circumstances-will-accessible-parking-permit-be-issued
There is also an online form available to you as well.
If the permit was siezed for being misused, it's possible that you may not be able to get another permit. You would have to talk to representatives from Service Ontario for more clarification.
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Parking infractions aren't important enough to have someone arrested...at least they aren't in Toronto. Parking tickets only affect an individual when they are looking to sell their vehicle, or to renew their plates. In order to get their plates renewed they must pay off their outstanding parking fines. Every time a parking officer types the license plate of a vehicle into their handheld device, they are able to see how many outstanding tickets and unpaid fines an individual has, and I have seen many individuals with hundreds of unpaid fines. In theory, when people have an unpaid ticket the city will look to a collection agency to get their money. I don't actually think this is actually in practice, as many people just continue to rack up parking tickets and avoid renewing their plates for as long as possible (AKA when they are fined by a police officer). I have heard of other cities that have a booting system in place, in order to have people pay their fines more diligently. Their car will remained booted until the city receives full payment of unpaid tickets.
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Yes, a ticket can be issued to someone while they are in their car. Our unit policy, however is to first ask them to move. If they do not comply then we can issue the ticket. Asking them to move is not mandatory, but we do it to be nice, as some people don't realize that they are parked illegally. Most people are happy to oblige, but those who refuse to listen can still get a ticket.
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It's hard for me to answer this without knowing the facts and circumstances. Specific situations require different forms of action.
There are rules that govern our job, but some vehicles may be towed over others depending on what offence they are committing. This doesn't mean that the officer is being selective on what they are towing, but maybe the second vehicle you mentioned was committing an offence that allowed for immediate towing. This can include no stopping, no standing, and even areas that block peoples driveways.
I wouldn't say that she is executing the law differently, but maybe the rules that we follow didn't allow her to tow the first vehicle. This is because we need to have three tickets on a vehicle from three different days in order to tow it. Maybe the second car had three tickets on it which warranted her to tow the vehicle.
Without the facts I am just giving hypothetical answers. If you feel strongly about this and you live on that particular street, you can call in and get more information from our office.
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Not a dumb question. This job is a very active one. We have inviduals who walk and bike for their entire shift. A lot of people I know, myself included, have lost some weight because of the job. I find that the physical requirements of the job have allowed me to maintain my weight a lot better than people who aren't on the job.
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