traffic wardens

Well, I'm not sure that we have an exact equivalent of 'traffic wardens' in the States. However, in some large cities (Houston for sure) in the downtown area, there are civilians that work for the city, whose only job is to go around the downtown area and give people tickets for expired parking meters and parking in no-parking zones. They are not armed, as they are not cops. Cops certainly do that type of job also, but only when they really have to. In fact, cameras all over Houston now are taking pictures of people that run red lights so that they can get tickets in the mail. The cops are too busy at the donut shops to bother with such trivial matters.

You said that it takes the cops 20 minutes to get to your house if it's being broken into. You're lucky. In Houston it takes about 3 hours. Don't get me wrong-we've got plenty of cops (6000 city police-not counting the other agencies). However, they're too busy hanging out in donut shops and arresting people for smoking joints to put a high priority on protecting your home.

 

Not a job i'd want, but i don't own a car so they never bother me. I'm suspicious of anyone who would deliberately seek out doing such a stigmatised job though.

 

yeah, charise, those people are called, insultingly, meter maids. i don't even know if they have a real title. but i've never had a run-in with them.