To maintain a staff of 25 in the unpopular role, the city council has revealed it must recruit up to three times a year as compliance officers tire of verbal and occasionally physical altercations with members of the public.
"Serious incidents resulting in injury are very rare but parking compliance officers do experience incidents of abuse and assault from time to time," he said.
"The council takes very seriously any abuse of, or assault on, our parking officers and all incidents are reported to police."
Thomas, who identified outside schools and areas of shopping malls as high risk areas, cited one example where an electric scooter was pushed into an officer by a member of the public. Another officer was injured when they were forced off balance and fell.
Between February 2020 and December 2021, the city council recorded 39 instances of abuse, four assaults, and two cases of harassment.
On one occasion an officer filmed an intimidating incident while a the occupants of a car slowly drove down a street very close to them.
Officers are equipped with body cameras to record incidents while they also receive conflict resolution and situational safety training.
"Staff are provided with workplace support and can access counselling if it is required," Thomas said.
Asked if staff turnover was high, he said they recruit about two or three times a year.
The city council’s longest-serving officer has been on the job for 33 years, though that was an anomaly.
Elsewhere in New Zealand, there had been a significant increase in the number and severity of assaults on officers in Wellington since the first Covid-19 lockdown last year.
"This has had an effect on the overall turnover of staff in the last 10-12 months as people decide that coming to work just to be verbally abused every day is no longer rewarding," a Wellington City Council spokesman said.
Hamilton City Council reported a 65 per cent increase in incidents of anti-social behaviour against staff when comparing the 2018/19 financial year to the most recent.
"We have observed a noticeable increase in verbal abuse over the past year, and near-misses experienced by wardens crossing at signalised pedestrian crossings," said acting city transportation unit manager Robyn Denton.
In Dunedin, a city council spokesperson said one officer was elbowed by a member of the public, while another had the comment “I hope you die,” yelled at them.
- Additional reporting NZ Herald
