Saint Andrews residents Tom and Rene Wearing turned to social media to share their experience of what they say was an unprofessional run-in with a local by-law enforcement officer. The couple was in line a breakfast restaurant on King Street when they noticed the by-law officer's truck parked in a no-parking zone.

"He is going around ticketing all these tourists, which I don't agree with, so when I saw his truck parked in a no-parking zone, I went over to take a picture," says Tom Wearing. "He sees me and says, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm taking your picture. I'm wondering why you think you have the right to park in a no-parking zone when the rest of us don't.' He sees, 'This gives me the right.' And that's when he points to his name tag. Well, that name tag doesn't give him the right to act the way he does when tourists come to town. It quickly escalated to him telling me to 'go suck a sausage.'"

The town responded to the incident the same day by releasing a statement that the matter would be investigated. The statement went on to discourage the use of social media for posting complaints about the town and its staff, asking people instead to direct their concerns to town hall. 

"We've contacted the town many times before and never got a result," said Rene Wearing. "So this time, we knew there was no point in contacting the town, and I believe nothing would have happened had things not gone as they did," 

Saint Andrews Mayor Brad Henderson says the town isn't against the use of social media for residents to air their grievances. 

"I believe the post made by town staff was taking out of context, but I understand why people saw it as a form of censorship," said Henderson. "At the heart of the statement was the idea that you should make sure that you do put your complaints into town hall as well to make sure town staff know about it and, indirectly, town council."

Despite Saint Andrews being a town of just 2,000 people, the Wearing's Facebook post about the incident has since gone viral, inspiring other social media personalities to weigh in, with a TikTok video about the matter garnering nearly 80,000 views. The Wearings, who say they are concerned that actions of the local by-law officer are bad for tourism, are nevertheless not worried that their viral post could also discourage visitors from coming to the tourist town. 

"In the event that this situation is resolved and we are happy with the resolution, I will be more than happy to post on social media that the old Saint Andrews is back," said Rene Wearing. 

An investigation into the incident is currently underway and appropriate steps will be taken.
 

"The individual staff member that was labelled in the complaint is currently removed from that line of work until the investigation is complete," said Henderson.