NEVER step foot in an NPC. I can beat that for a horror story but it was in London. We saw an NCP and drove up the weird spirally ramp entrance to look at the prices on the board, we saw they were ridiculous (£16 an hour! (for the first hour, not sure of the rates after that)) and wanted to leave but a van had come up the ramp behind us and so we had nowhere to go but in as there was no way we could reverse down that with the van behind us. We stayed the minimum one hour and then left, only to see said van parked up at the bottom of the ramp and then follow another car up. We watched for about 10 mins and saw that the van followed cars up so they were trapped, drove through and out and then parked back up again ready for the next unsuspecting idiots. Merrion Centre is good parking on a weekend/evening, £1 an hour for the first 3 hours (then extortionate after that). Can't beat it on a Saturday.
I think in Sheffield they are - I watched a fly on the wall documentary about life in Sheffield - Threads I think it was called - and the traffic warden in that definately had a machine gun - they probably need them in Sheffield. I'm interested in whether council employed traffic wardens would loose in the arms race against better funded private parking contractors. By legislation the council employed wardens would only be able to charge the cost of running the service - and so armaments budget would be limited and range of weaponry limited - whereas private enforcers would be able to re-invest in heavier and more efficient weaponry thereby increasing their kill rate and takings - ending a spiral which would see the demise of public sector jobs. I think on balance - just a paint gun. maybe.