Man facing assault charges after allegedly pushing a parking enforcement officer

Toronto police are dealing with yet another alleged assault on a parking enforcement officer, this time in Little Italy.

Officers were called out to Manning Avenue just off of College Street on Wednesday afternoon after the owner of a parked vehicle, who was receiving a ticket, was accused of pushing a bylaw officer to the ground.

READ MORE: Assaults, threats on Toronto parking officers on the rise

“The officer took the time to explain the circumstances under which he was issuing the ticket,” said Toronto Police Cst. Allyson Douglas-Cook. “However, the man was not satisfied with that and subsequently pushed the officer to the ground.”

Victor Carvalho, 56, of Toronto, was arrested on site by arriving police officers, and later charged with assaulting a peace officer.

The incident is the latest in a rash of alleged assaults on parking officers in 2017.

READ MORE: 5th parking enforcement officer assault in 2-week period in Toronto

In 2016, officers were assaulted or threatened on the job 79 times — an increase of about 52 per cent in two years. (Charges were not filed in all cases. The figures represent police records.)

Brian Moniz, operations supervisor for Toronto police parking enforcement, told AM640’s The Morning Show in March that a shift in enforcement strategy may have had a role in the increase.

“I think one of the reasons is in 2016, where we had the largest spike, we allocated a lot more of our resources and our officers to the rush hour,” said Moniz.

Douglas-Cook said officers are trained to avoid conflict while on duty and are not obligated to explain to potential offenders the reasoning behind the serving of a ticket.

— With files from Kerri Breen