Show some respect

Being a parking enforcement officer in Toronto shouldn’t be a life-threatening job. Alarmingly, though, sometimes it is.

Consider the time a man ran out of a Tim Hortons, jumped into a car and drove straight at parking officer Kyle Ashley. “I was holding onto the hood of this car for about two blocks,” Ashley told the Star’s David Rider.

Others tell of having coffee thrown in their faces, being headbutted, having people drive over their feet, being side-swiped by bumpers or side mirrors as people drive away, being threatened with death, spat at and verbally abused.

It shouldn’t be this way, and certainly not in a famously civil city like this one. Even more worrisome, the situation has been getting worse. Last year, there were 79 assaults or threats of bodily injury against parking officers. That was up from 60 in 2015 and 52 in 2014. Happily, this year incidents are down to about 3.7 per month, from 6.7 on average in 2016. Still, one is too many.

It’s got to stop. It should go without saying that no one should be subjected to abuse or assault on the job.

Part of the reason for the extra abuse may be that tickets are more costly and are being handed out more frequently. Parking on a rush hour route used to cost $60 and now brings a fine of $150. And Mayor John Tory’s traffic blitz means an officer is less likely to ask you to move along and more likely to write a ticket.

All of that can lead to road rage. But nothing excuses being verbally abusive, let alone physically threatening, to anyone, never mind a parking officer.

The head of the Toronto Police Service’s parking enforcement unit, Brian Moniz, is taking action.

First, starting next month, parking officers will get training on how to defuse potentially dangerous situations.

Second, the parking enforcement unit is now issuing press releases naming alleged offenders for all assaults on parking officers where charges are pending. That means your name will pop up in a Google search associated with an indictable offence.

Third, anyone who assaults a parking officer should understand that if they are charged they will be arrested, fingerprinted and end up in court.

While assaulting a parking officer (or even a police officer) doesn’t carry a bigger penalty than attacking a civilian, the sentence can be onerous: five years for simple assault, 10 for assault with a weapon and 14 years if the officer is maimed or wounded.

Just the legal proceedings alone, never mind the potential penalties, are a lot worse than receiving a ticket.

That’s the message the Toronto Police Service should get out in an advertising blitz. It’s worth the investment to reinforce the message that it’s not OK to disrespect, never mind assault, parking officers. They are, after all, just doing their job.