Hello,
I am a traffic warden in London, and have been watching this forum with interest.
This is the first thread where I feel that I may have a unique contribution to make.
I observe cars under contravention code 30F, and to be honest with you, do not record the valve position, because it is too cumbersome a task.
On my handheld, I record when I first 'observe' the vehicle. I note the 'make' and 'colour' of the vehicle. I note the location of the vehicle e.g. outside Tesco Express, then save the observation.
In a shift, I can 'observe' 100 vehicles in the free parking bays, but only issue a PCN to a couple of them.
It is incredibly arduous to record lots and lots of information in an observation that I am most likely going to discard.
I can imagine that it sucks for the motorist, who may have doubts about when I really did start observing their vehicle. However, I tell them that falsifying an observation is a very serious matter, so I would like to think that colleagues don't resort to that.
I was trained to take photos after the contravention has occurred and taught that it is incorrect to take photos of a vehicle that - at that point - is not offending.
One caveat I will mention is that every local authority does seem to have its own modus operandi. With that in mind, I suspect that another warden could come along and say something entirely different from me.
