Bike lane parking enforcement officer’s Twitter account suspended

Toronto bike-riding parking enforcement officer Kyle Ashley came to the public’s attention when in June he began to target vehicles in bike lanes and cheekily called the offenders out on social media. The Toronto Police confirmed to The Star on Friday that Ashley’s @TPS_ParkingPal Twitter account has been suspended pending an internal investigation into how appropriate some of the Tweets he became well known for publishing were.

“We’ve had some complaints about some of what he’s been doing. We’ve had concerns and that has escalated and while the complaint and the concerns are being looked into it’s been temporarily suspended,” said Mark Pugash, a police service spokesman to The Star.

“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. We’ve had complaints ranging around the appropriateness of some of the things that he’s been posting on Twitter,” Pugash said.

Ashley started specifically targeting offenders in bike lanes in June to the applause of the local cycling community and cycling advocates. He was also outspoken about the city requiring better cycling infrastructure and better protected bike lanes. The city hired two additional parking enforcement officers to specifically enforce bike lane laws thanks to the success of Ashley’s strategy.

However, his approach was not always applauded with higher ups advising Ashley to turn his commentary down a notch according to The Star. Frequent targets of Ashley included delivery vehicles, frequently the likes of Canada Post came under scrutiny for drivers stopping in bike lanes.

The police spokesman said that the suspension did not reflect on the work the unit has been doing. Pugash said they would continue to be committed to keeping bike lanes clear from invaders while publicizing the work the parking enforcement officers do using social media to educate drivers the dangers it poses to cyclist.

Pugash added that Ashley’s account is expected to be back following the investigation.