SAN FRANCISCO: License plate scanners help find those with unpaid parking tickets

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/27/6 | Rachel Gordon

[SmithL]

Catching parking scofflaws in San Francisco has become easier with the help of high-tech cameras that scan license plates in search of cars saddled with unpaid citations.

A city parking crew operating the new system can almost instantaneously find cars with at least five outstanding tickets. A two-person team roams city streets with two small cameras mounted atop their unmarked vehicle. The cameras can scan 250 or more plates an hour.

And when a match is made, the crew attaches a yellow metal boot to the front wheel, removing it only after the tickets are paid.

The city's Department of Parking and Traffic is giving the program a 90-day test run set to end in February. If it's successful, the program will be expanded. The system is also used to find stolen vehicles.

In San Francisco, a city notorious for its shortage of on-street parking, officials issue nearly 2 million tickets worth $85 million each year, a meaningful chunk of the city's more than $5 billion budget. About 8,000 drivers have accrued five or more tickets and are pegged as scofflaws.

Michelle McKniff was one of them. She found her car booted last week after eating brunch in San Francisco's Polk Gulch neighborhood.

"I almost cried,'' said the 28-year-old Oakland resident who works in San Francisco. "I just stood there and thought, 'Oh my God.' I couldn't believe it.''

[SmithL]

Bill Self (right) and his partner use a vehicle equipped with cameras that photograph license plates.

[SmithL]

Parking control officer Bill Self removes a boot from a scofflaw's car found by a scanner. The owner had to pay up for the car to be freed.

[Enterprise]

"I left my booted car, in San Francisco."

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

ROFLMAO

[N. Theknow]

Too bad it can't find my car. It was stolen Christmas Eve.

[VeniVidiVici]

If you're lucky the person who stole it will park it illegally. Then they'll be able to find it. ;)

[razorback-bert]

feels safer driving home than taking public transit after dark.

I am sure I have heard that public transit is the best solution to grid lock and parking, I am almost positive that is the case.

Barcoded license plates are in our future.

[Joe 6-pack]

I'm surprised San Francisco is booting tires. I figured they'd be more likely to plug your tail pipe.

[jjm2111]

Typical stupid liberal big city nonsense. There are probably a whole slew of weird parking laws intended to trap ordinary citizens into getting citations.

[BigBobber]

If only they could scan people to find out who are illegal aliens.

[YouPosting2Me]

Where we're going, we don't need roads!

[SauronOfMordor]

Now if only they would do the same program to boot cars that are on the streets without insurance, we would have fewer problems with uninsured motorists. But that would hit at the Democrat clientele, so it won't happen

[READINABLUESTATE]

If you're lucky the person who stole it will park it illegally. Then they'll be able to find it. ;)



but you won't get it back until you pay the fines.

[SmoothTalker]

Anybody else uneasy about big brother?

[grjr21]

In the early 80's I lived next to a guy (a recent Russian immigrant ) who had his PU stolen from the hospital parking lot where he worked.
After he reported it stolen he got into a dispute with his insurance company over the value of his vehicle and he spent close to a year arguing with them about it.Until one day in the mail he received a stack of parking tickets for his stolen PU from the city.
Turns out the genius who stole it was a plumber who then used it as his daily work truck often parking it in front of the fire hydrant in front of his own house at night.
In the end he received nothing from the insurance company for the loss of his truck and the last I heard of him the city was still trying to get the ticket money from him because he was the registered owner of the truck at the time the tickets were issued.

[taxcontrol]

Hmmm, lets think that one through.

A state could require that when car insurance is purchased, notice of the covered VIN be provided to the state. State then matches VIN to license plate, and checks it as good and identifies the date / time and company of coverage, policy number as well as an ending date of coverage. Cost of the system could be recovered by a minor "registration fee" say $1 to register the policy update with the state. Here in Colorado we have about 1.5 Million vehicles. I'd think that a million a year would be good enough to build and run such a system.

Proof of insurance should be required at registration. Out of state tags could be checked through a common web page gateway that could access all the states database. Since the information ties a VIN and a license plate, no personal information would be needed.

Cars that are stopped could have their plates run and check for insurance before the officer even steps out of the car.

[isthisnickcool]

That's about the system Texas is working on. They just picked a company to build the system.

[Dead Corpse]

Just what we need, another surveillance system...

(sarc)Pretty soon, we'll be as safe as folks in London...(/sarc)

[Dead Corpse]

Tie that in with RealID, NICS, and Know Your Customer, they'll be able to get you on that last bounced check and suspicioning of being a gun owner as well.

Ever get the feeling you are sliding downhill and picking up speed?

[relictele]

Catching parking scofflaws

Intro printed without irony by the SF paper. Scofflaws? I scoff at any "law" whose sole purpose is revenue generation.

We can't get cops to walk a beat, where they would be able to check the plates AND catch crooks AND demonstrate a presence? No, they are sat in a cruiser scanning plates with a laptop.