Traffic warden, parking attendant, CEO

I'm amused to learn that parking attendants (formerly known as 'traffic wardens'*) now go by the official name of 'civil enforcement officers'. There are two reasons that this amuses me:

  • The acronym for civil enforcement officer is CEO, which obviously is already used for 'chief executive officer'. Are parking attendants trying to sneak themselves some kudos?
  • Parking attendants are, in my limited experience, sometimes less than civil. But then they are often given a less than civil reception by members of the public...
More on CEOs in Westminster



* Apparently the difference between a traffic warden (pictured) and a parking attendant is that the former is employed by the police whereas the latter is employed by a local authority. I did not know that!

2 comments:

TootsNYC said...

In the U.S., a parking attendant is an employee of the private company that runs the parking lot. They have no legal authority at all. The most they might do to enforce anything is to call their company's contracted towing company to come tow a car that was there long than it had paid for.

Should a municipal lot have someone watching over it, this person will of course be a city employee--but not an employee of any law-enforcement branch.

Editrix said...

So, when these CEOs aren't writing parking tickets, are they quelling riots or something? Because that's what "civil enforcement officer" makes me think of.