palani
21st June 2012, 06:03 AM
Beep, Beep!!! Scofflaw data base?
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20120621/NEWS01/306210018/1079/
Iowa City parking officers may soon hear an alarm if they pass vehicles parked illegally or harboring unpaid tickets using an expensive technology that’s the envy of many law enforcement officials.
The city’s Transportation Services Department is looking for vendors and has set aside $154,000 in its budget for a License Plate Recognition system, which works by mounting a high-definition camera on top of a vehicle that takes photos of license plates and runs them through a scofflaw database. Such software still is rare in Iowa but is picking up steam as it becomes more affordable and accessible.
The idea is to make parking enforcement more efficient, said Mark Rummel, associate director of Transportation Services. Rather than checking each vehicle in a parking lot or row of meters individually, the software would automatically scan nearby vehicles and sound an alarm if it detects a violation.
“I think just the time it’s going to save us is going to be huge,” he said. “It’s a pretty vast area that we try and cover.”
Police departments in Iowa, including Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, have looked into such software, but most say it’s too expensive.
“We couldn’t afford it right now,” said Sgt. Cristy Hamblin, spokeswoman for the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Officials with the Iowa City Police Department didn’t return calls for comment, but Assistant to the City Manager Geoff Fruin said LPR technology hasn’t been discussed for the ICPD.
Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said LPR would be ideal for recovering stolen vehicles or catching barred drivers, but it ultimately is too expensive to be worth it.
“As you’re going through downtown Lone Tree, to be running every license plate you go by, I could see where that could be useful,” he said.
Private vendors must submit their proposals to the city by July 12, and the City Council will need to approve the contract. Rummel said he hopes to have the software up and running by late fall at the earliest. It would be installed in one of the department’s Ford Connects but could be put in more in the future, he said.
The Transportation Services Department only has access to parking violations, permits and meter records, Rummel said, so the software wouldn’t be able to tell whether a vehicle is stolen or whether there’s a warrant for the owner’s arrest, at least not without access to those databases. It would detect whether vehicles have more than $50 in citations that are more than 10 days old, he said.
University of Iowa Parking and Transportation Director Dave Ricketts said that depending on the cost, his department would be interested in using the software as well.
“We’ve got 16,000 parking spaces,” he said. “Yes, it would help.”
LPR technology has become much more reliable and less expensive over the past 10 years, Ricketts said.
“LPR is definitely going to be in our future,” he said. “How we use it is unclear yet, whether it’s enforcement, cashiering or security, but we’re headed that way.”
The Polk County Sheriff’s Department installed an LPR system in one of its patrol cars last summer that can check for things such as arrest warrants, stolen vehicles and missing persons, Sgt. Jana Rooker said. The department received a nearly $26,000 Department of Justice grant to pay for the software.
Rather than having the officer type license plate numbers into their computers while driving, the software automatically scans plates and sounds an alarm if it detects a warrant or violation, she said.
“So as the officer is driving down the road, almost every vehicle it encounters on the road, that license plate can be checked within a matter of seconds with this software,” Rooker said.
But not everyone is excited at the sound of that.
Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said he’s concerned about the government’s ability to store the data it collects through LPR software. Steps must be taken now while LPR use is in its early stages to ensure data that’s collected is destroyed, Stone said.
“As databases become interconnected and synced, more and more and more of this kind of surveillance technology can create the ability of the government to instantly create a dossier, a profile of what people are doing,” he said.
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20120621/NEWS01/306210018/1079/
Iowa City parking officers may soon hear an alarm if they pass vehicles parked illegally or harboring unpaid tickets using an expensive technology that’s the envy of many law enforcement officials.
The city’s Transportation Services Department is looking for vendors and has set aside $154,000 in its budget for a License Plate Recognition system, which works by mounting a high-definition camera on top of a vehicle that takes photos of license plates and runs them through a scofflaw database. Such software still is rare in Iowa but is picking up steam as it becomes more affordable and accessible.
The idea is to make parking enforcement more efficient, said Mark Rummel, associate director of Transportation Services. Rather than checking each vehicle in a parking lot or row of meters individually, the software would automatically scan nearby vehicles and sound an alarm if it detects a violation.
“I think just the time it’s going to save us is going to be huge,” he said. “It’s a pretty vast area that we try and cover.”
Police departments in Iowa, including Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, have looked into such software, but most say it’s too expensive.
“We couldn’t afford it right now,” said Sgt. Cristy Hamblin, spokeswoman for the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Officials with the Iowa City Police Department didn’t return calls for comment, but Assistant to the City Manager Geoff Fruin said LPR technology hasn’t been discussed for the ICPD.
Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said LPR would be ideal for recovering stolen vehicles or catching barred drivers, but it ultimately is too expensive to be worth it.
“As you’re going through downtown Lone Tree, to be running every license plate you go by, I could see where that could be useful,” he said.
Private vendors must submit their proposals to the city by July 12, and the City Council will need to approve the contract. Rummel said he hopes to have the software up and running by late fall at the earliest. It would be installed in one of the department’s Ford Connects but could be put in more in the future, he said.
The Transportation Services Department only has access to parking violations, permits and meter records, Rummel said, so the software wouldn’t be able to tell whether a vehicle is stolen or whether there’s a warrant for the owner’s arrest, at least not without access to those databases. It would detect whether vehicles have more than $50 in citations that are more than 10 days old, he said.
University of Iowa Parking and Transportation Director Dave Ricketts said that depending on the cost, his department would be interested in using the software as well.
“We’ve got 16,000 parking spaces,” he said. “Yes, it would help.”
LPR technology has become much more reliable and less expensive over the past 10 years, Ricketts said.
“LPR is definitely going to be in our future,” he said. “How we use it is unclear yet, whether it’s enforcement, cashiering or security, but we’re headed that way.”
The Polk County Sheriff’s Department installed an LPR system in one of its patrol cars last summer that can check for things such as arrest warrants, stolen vehicles and missing persons, Sgt. Jana Rooker said. The department received a nearly $26,000 Department of Justice grant to pay for the software.
Rather than having the officer type license plate numbers into their computers while driving, the software automatically scans plates and sounds an alarm if it detects a warrant or violation, she said.
“So as the officer is driving down the road, almost every vehicle it encounters on the road, that license plate can be checked within a matter of seconds with this software,” Rooker said.
But not everyone is excited at the sound of that.
Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said he’s concerned about the government’s ability to store the data it collects through LPR software. Steps must be taken now while LPR use is in its early stages to ensure data that’s collected is destroyed, Stone said.
“As databases become interconnected and synced, more and more and more of this kind of surveillance technology can create the ability of the government to instantly create a dossier, a profile of what people are doing,” he said.