“Getting cussed out comes with the job”: Ten parking enforcement officers share their on-the-job horror stories

John Tory’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal parking during rush hour has a lot of Torontonians seeing red—or, rather, yellow, on their windshields, in the form of parking tickets. The ones who absorb all that misplaced commuter rage are Toronto’s parking enforcement officers, civilian employees of the Toronto Police Service. They’re not police officers, but the work still has its hazards: they’re often abused, verbally and sometimes physically, just for doing their jobs. Here, 10 enforcement officers talk about their worst experiences on the street.