Toronto's snap-happy, bike-riding parking enforcement officer Kyle Ashley (aka @TPS_Parking pal) has been suspended from Twitter.
A police spokesperson confirmed to the Star on Friday that Ashley's supervisors are currently investigating the "appropriateness" of how he used his Twitter account after receiving some complaints.
"We've had numerous complaints and concerns and we thought the prudent thing to do is investigate them and suspend the account while that's going on," said Mark Pugash of the Toronto Police Service, noting that the account is only being suspended "temporarily" while Ashley's tweets are examined.
Yes you look like you're about to explode any minute now... 🚴🔥🙄 http://pic.twitter.com/FdDdyPO5cp
— Mika Hamilton (@ICUwalker) October 18, 2017
Pugash did not comment on the nature of complaints against Ashley, but the officer has become well-known in the Twitter community for taking pictures of cars parked in bike lanes and sharing them via the social network.
Ashley is one of several Toronto Parking Enforcement officers (and now regular citizens) who've taken to publicly shaming motorists for bad parking jobs like this, but he appears to have started the trend.
Local cycling activists love him for it, but some people have criticized Ashley's behaviour on Twitter, especially when he posts selfies to brag about ticketing road offenders.
"Proud of what you do but probably not a good idea to boast about ticketing a mom on way to pick up her kids," replied a citizen to one of Ashley's tweets during an enforcement blitz earlier this autumn. "Life's already hard enough #empathy"
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
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