City Hires Five Parking Enforcement Officers
The City of Hamilton hired five Parking Enforcement Officers to “assist the City with ensuring equal parking and vehicular access opportunities across Hamilton.
A spokesperson said, “The officers commenced their new roles on August 23rd, 2021. Previously, such enforcement was carried out by Traffic Wardens via the Bermuda Police Service [BPS]. Members of the public should note that these Enforcement Officers have been lawfully granted the power to issue tickets by the Bermuda Police Service.
Parking Enforcement Officers Darren Robinson, Earl Basden, Lateef Trott, Michael Parsons, and Ronald Trott
“At the City of Hamilton, we set the parking rules, so it just made sense for us to enforce them,” explained City CEO Dwayne Caines. “Our intention with these new hires is to ensure that everyone has good access to parking in the City.
“It’s a small City – everyone is competing for space – so we want to ensure that parking bays turn over as they should and that specially-designated bays such as loading zones, City resident parking, disabled parking, taxi parking and one-hour parking are used for the functions and populations for which they were intended.
“The idea is not to ticket people indiscriminately; we want to use the visibility of these officers to change people’s behaviours and dissuade bad parking habits. The officers are not here to be punitive but, rather, to make the public aware of any bad parking practices and to enforce parking in the City.
“For example, if there is someone double parked in the street and still in their vehicle, officers will simply ask them to move along. They will only write a ticket if that individual does not move after being told to do so. Also, if signs or road markings are not clear, they will not issue tickets.”
The City added, “The officers will be in regular communication with area businesses regarding any parking challenges they might be having.
“As a reminder to the public, all vehicles [including motorcycles] are not allowed to park on the sidewalks. This means that cleaning companies, construction companies and security companies are not permitted to park on the sidewalks.
“The new Enforcement Officers underwent two weeks of training with the BPS, as well as conflict resolution training and instruction regarding the legal requirements of ticket writing.
“The officers can be identified by their blue City of Hamilton uniforms.
“For more information about parking in the City go here and here.”
Parking enforcement officers are fine, I guess. But what about the vagrants who assemble at the foot of Burnaby Street, harass customers outside Marketplace, wait in hiding to confront people at the ATM on Court & Church Streets, create a mess at the Anglican Cathedral, even hanging their soiled bedding on the steps of the bell monument..is there a plan for the city to lend some relief to these problems? Oh, I get it, this is just another revenue earner. There are so few people in the stores so now we are going to harass them by ensuring that they are paying their parking fees. Go fgure!!!
Unfortunately venturing into the city to shop is becoming less and less appealing. The COH should focus on providing more convenient parking to taxpayers/everyone that spends money in the city. Why go into the city, struggle to find parking, and get taxed extra if I am shopping for longer than an hour. The COH is pushing people to do more online shopping….
“The COH should focus on providing more convenient parking”
No, no, no! You’ve got that all wrong. The COH has spent untold thousands of dollars in the last few years REMOVING parking spots from the streets! You cannot expect those parking spots to be returned!
How about some vagrant enforcement officers? Oh I forgot silly me, you can’t make money with vagrant officers.
How about some vagrant enforcement officers? Oh I forgot silly me you can’t make money with vagrant officers.
“The idea is not to ticket people indiscriminately” what a load, you ticket commercial vehicles in loading zones. And don’t give me that bull it’s for loading & in-loading only.
So much for diversity in the workplace.
This should be fun.Can’t wait for the fist fights.
So what happens to the Traffic Officers who used to perform this duty? Are they fired? Made redundant? Reassigned? Still doing the same job?
If the last, any conflict as to who issues the ticket?
[Thought the City was broke. Obviously not if they can hire these many to ‘make sure you park properly’.
Get rid of the vagrants. They are an aggressive nuisance, and the streets smell of urine.