SF deploys license plate scanners to fighting parking scofflaws
Onboard system is programmed to locate cars sporting five or more outstanding parking tickets; violators immediately get the boot; emerging technology finds many friends in law enforcement
Mobile license plate recognition (LPR) software is on many police departments’ wish lists. Used at the U.S.-Mexico border, the technology only recently has become cheap enough, and microprocessors powerful enough, for it to be mounted to the roofs of patrol cars or carried in hand. The typical system uses infrared light to illuminate the plate, a high-speed camera photographs it, and an on-board computer compares the image with a database of stolen cars, registered sex offenders, and parolees. Police like it because it alerts them to suspects they would not have otherwise noticed, and it gives them the ability to search intentionally for any car they would like to find.
When we first reported on this technology, we wondered if it might not be especially useful for collecting unpaid parking tickets. It turns out San Francisco authorities were thinking the same thing. After programming the $92,000 system to locate only those with five or more unpaid tickets (to maximize efficiency), a two person team roams the city while the two onboard cameras scan 250 plates an hour. Once a target has been identified — and the data confirmed with the dispatcher — the team attaches a metal boot to the front wheel with instructions stating that the device will be removed only after the unpaid tickets are cleared. “I almost cried,” said one unfortunate boot-ee. “I just stood there and thought, ‘Oh my God.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
The city’s Department of Parking and Traffic is giving the program a 90-day test run set to end in February.
-read more in Rachel Gordon’s San Francisco Chronicle report
