New City Van Tracks Your Parking

[Lunican]

New City Van Tracks Your Parking



By Jackelyn Barnard
First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- You may not have noticed the new city van or the four cameras mounted on the front and back of it, but chances are it has noticed you.

The van is the newest addition to the Jacksonville parking enforcement department.

It has a computer system on board that is programmed to take pictures of cars, license plates, and tires.

"Any speed limit under 40 mph will record every license plate on both sides of the street as they drive down the street," says Robert Carle, the division chief of the Parking Enforcement Department.

The computer on-board is able to keep a track of the pictures it takes and the parking spots cars are parked in.

The spots all have meter limits. The van and its driver know the meter limits and when the meter expires.

The parking police and their new vehicle hit the street again on the same path to see what cars should have moved and have not.

"They've been in a two hour zone for three hours and 39 minutes," says Robert Bradley, a member of the parking enforcement team.

Bradley is able to confirm the problem with a quick check on the pictures from a laptop on-board with him in the van.

The tire shots show the air stems are in the exact same spot when Bradley went by in the morning.

"That hasn't moved," says Bradley. That means it is ticket time, but tickets are not all the system can do.

Every single car that has an unpaid ticket in Duval County, 30 days or older, has its plate programmed into the van's system.

The computer can pick it up as it passes the car. "If it's bootable, it will show a separate screen," says Bradley.

Bradley locks the car down because it has more than three delinquent fines.

Bradley says what the new tool does for the department is speed up the job.

What meter readers do on foot, which is cover about 100 to 120 cars a day, the van can do in seconds.

"It can do 1,000 (cars) easy in no time."

In the four months the van has been on the road, it has picked up $35,000 in citations.

For the year, the city is owed more than $672,000 in traffic fines.

Right now, the van is focused on the meters in Downtown.

All the information it records is saved and and is even used as evidence in court.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=90918&ref=rss

[Lunican]

Forget smart meters and relaxed enforcement.

This van also has lasers that incinerate your car if you are over your time.

[big ben]

does it pick up public urination?

[thelakelander]

I thought the bill Suzanne Jenkins got passed allowed for you to feed the meters up to three hours?  On the news last night, the guy driving the van ticketed a car that had been parking in a "two hour" zone.  It really looked like that revision to the parking regulation was/is not being followed by parking enforcement.

[Jason]

That bill was just a suggestion I guess.

[DetroitInJAX]

Like every other downtown ordinance, it only applies to citizens, not the government that passed it...

[vicupstate]

If you think DT is deserted now, just wait til word of mouth spreads about this.  It seems as if the city is actually TRYING to destroy what is left of DT. 

If this doesn't prove the titans of parking have the final say on DT, i don't know what does. 

Couldn't the city make just as much enfocing the speed limits in the suburbs. 

[RiversideGator]

I had a run in with this downtown destroying van today.  I am pretty sure I will be getting a ticket in the mail.  Luckily though, there will be some additional revenue for our incompetent runt of a mayor to waste.  Thanks City!

[Midway ®]

See, we do have common beliefs.

[DetroitInJAX]

As a sidebar, a few weeks ago I saw a car parked on a public street in Riverside near Stockton and it was booted.  Do the parking nazi's come all the way to Riverside to boot downtown meter offenders?

As for this van.. I remember it from when I lived downtown.  Boy I wanted to yell a few choice words at those jerks.  The article almost makes them seem proud of what they do.  Makes me ill to think that the city is proud of scaring every last customer out of the urban core.

Just keep ticketing.  Pretty soon, there'll be no business, commuters will park in garages, and the Parking Enforcement department will no longer have a job, as they effectively will liquidate themselves.....and we're left with Detroit ala 1982.

[Ernest Street]

Hmmm...I accidently had a can of Flat black spray paint in my hand and the lenses were covered...bummer... In response to the ticket nazi in riverside...The old geezer comes around every so often from 5-Points...to ticket every vehicle on Ernest Street which isn't pointed the right way.....yes you heard me right. an $85 ticket.....

[KenFSU]

This infuriates me.

I don't advocate crime, but it would make my WEEK to see someone take a baseball bat to those cameras.

Just a disgusting example of the city working against, rather than for, its citizens.

[brainstormer]

A waste of taxpayer money!!!  It is time we revolt!!!  Peyton is ruining this city, plain and simple.  He must go.  I love the point about targeting speeders in the suburbs.  I bet we could make thousands of dollars a day on Blanding alone!  Sorry for all of the exclamation points but it is hard to put my anger into print.  I have to stop reading tonight.  It is just one MetroJax article after another.  How can anyone not be pissed off?  Look for more closures downtown within the coming months.  I hope we aren't too late.  What can we do?  I'm ready to organize.  Perhaps a "Rally for Jax" in Hemming Plaza.  It's time to say enough is enough.  We must take back the city.

[ChriswUfGator]

Bump for a thread that shows, in light of two of our last major corporate tenants having just bailed because of the asinine parking policies, just how backwards COJ has things when it comes to downtown...

[uptowngirl]

so, parked in a DT city owned lot this week, going to get my car tags since they never cam in the mail-had my proof of payment (they cashed the check), got my ticket as I went in the lot. Got my tags, went back to the car and had a "parking ticket" for expired tags!!!!! WTF man???!!! First of all it was the city's mistake not mine, second why the hell does Parking Enforcement give out a tags ticket? Lastly I had to pay the bastards to get out of their lot!