Crossing guard

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A London "lollipop lady", Sheila Gallagher, with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

A crossing guard (United States), a school crossing patrol officer (United Kingdom) or school crossing supervisor (Australia) is a traffic management specialist who is normally stationed on busy roadways to aid pedestrians. Often associated with elementary school children, crossing guards temporarily stop the flow of traffic so pedestrians may cross an intersection. Crossing guards are known by a variety of names, which include "crossing guard", "traffic monitor", and "school crossing patroller".

[edit] Australia and the United Kingdom

In Australia and the United Kingdom, a school crossing supervisor or school crossing patrol officer is colloquially known as a lollipop man, and lollipop woman/lady, because of the modified circular stop sign he or she carries, which resembles a large lollipop.

In Australia, school crossing supervisors are employed by state government transport authorities and are posted at crossing sites by government officers.

Under UK law it is an offence for a motorist not to stop if signalled to do so by a patroller. In the past patrollers only had the authority to stop the traffic for children. However, the Transport Act 2000 changed the law was so that a patroller had the authority to stop the traffic for any pedestrian^[1].

In the UK, the stop sign has the word "STOP", a strip of black, and an international symbol for children. (This symbol has recently replaced the word "CHILDREN".) They are employed by local authorities, but there is a greater degree of standardisation of the system across the country than in the US. They are often older people who have retired from full-time employment. They may be based at a pelican crossing, a zebra crossing, or just an ordinary point on the road widely used as a crossing.

[edit] United States

No universal regulations exist that describe who may be a crossing guard, where crossing guards are stationed, or for what purposes a crossing guard may be employed. This person may be paid or volunteer; the person may be a school employee, a member of local law enforcement, a city employee, or contracted privately. Many elementary school crossing guards are assisted by older students, known by a variety of titles such as "safety monitor" and "safety patrol." These do not have legal responsibility for the safety of children and have no legal responsibility.

Crossing guards, except those who are duly sworn public safety officers, have no arrest powers, cannot write tickets, and can only forward the license plate numbers and other descriptors of alleged violators to local law enforcement, who will decide what to do with that information; results may range from nothing at all to a verbal warning to a written summons and fine.

Similar procedures exist in most areas for school bus drivers, who may observe motorists disobeying the bus stop arm or flashing lights usually displayed when children are exiting the bus.