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. The term was coined in the 1960s when road safety awareness programs were rolled out in schools throughout the UK. Ventriloquist, John Bouchier, visited schools nationwide with his ventriloquist dummy to help make children more aware of road safety. During these visits John's main character, a young boy named Charlie, referred to crossing patrol officers as "Lollipop men" for the first time. The term became widely used very quickly and has crossed into popular culture, both in the folk world (the common morris-dance tune "The Lollipop Man" has lewd lyrics in one tradition), and in the pop world (see the song by the band Sweet).
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.
In the UK, the stop sign has the word "STOP", a strip of black, and an international symbol for children (the symbol is sometimes replaced the written word "CHILDREN"). The black strip is used to record, with chalk, the registration numbers of motorists that do not stop. The patrollers 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.
Due to an increase in abuse, threats and other aggressive behaviour from some drivers, signs with built-in hi-tech cameras are being introduced to record offenders, cars and registrations.
Read more about this topic: Crossing Guard
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