Description
Patrol assigned area, such as public parking lot or city streets to issue tickets to overtime parking violators and illegally parked vehicles.
- • Patrol an assigned area by vehicle or on foot to ensure public compliance with existing parking ordinance.
- • Maintain close communications with dispatching personnel, using two-way radios or cell phones.
- • Write warnings and citations for illegally parked vehicles.
- • Mark tires of parked vehicles with chalk and record time of marking, and return at regular intervals to ensure that parking time limits are not exceeded.
- • Respond to and make radio dispatch calls regarding parking violations and complaints.
- • Identify vehicles in violation of parking codes, checking with dispatchers when necessary to confirm identities or to determine whether vehicles need to be booted or towed.
- • Perform simple vehicle maintenance procedures, such as checking oil and gas, and report mechanical problems to supervisors.
- • Observe and report hazardous conditions, such as missing traffic signals or signs, and street markings that need to be repainted.
- • Investigate and answer complaints regarding contested parking citations, determining their validity and routing them appropriately.
- • Maintain assigned equipment and supplies, such as hand-held citation computers, citation books, rain gear, tire-marking chalk, and street cones.
- • Provide information to the public regarding parking regulations and facilities, and the location of streets, buildings and points of interest.
- • Appear in court at hearings regarding contested traffic citations.
- • Make arrangements for illegally parked or abandoned vehicles to be towed, and direct tow-truck drivers to the correct vehicles.
- • Perform traffic control duties such as setting up barricades and temporary signs, placing bags on parking meters to limit their use, or directing traffic.
- • Provide assistance to motorists needing help with problems, such as flat tires, keys locked in cars, or dead batteries.
- • Enter and retrieve information pertaining to vehicle registration, identification, and status, using hand-held computers.
- • Collect coins deposited in meters.
- • Prepare and maintain required records, including logs of parking enforcement activities, and records of contested citations.
- • Locate lost, stolen, and counterfeit parking permits, and take necessary enforcement action.
- • Wind parking meter clocks.
- • Assign and review the work of subordinates.
- • Train new or temporary staff.
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Public Service & Safety
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
