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February 01, 2007
Cameras on Street Sweepers
The Washington Times reported on an initiative by new DC Mayor Fenty. The idea is putting cameras on street sweepers to photo enforce vehicles parked illegally in street-sweeping lanes. Last year there was more than 58,000 tickets for these violations. The plan is to outfit street-sweeping vehicles with two types of cameras: a license-plate recognition camera and another that provides a wider view of the vehicle.
Naturally, as with most photo enforcement, it is not popular with everyone. A nice post on why people are uncomfortable with the initiative can be found at the DCist. It also rebuts a lot of the concerns:
The people caught on traffic cameras are running red lights and speeding. Why is it a problem to photo-enforce parking laws as well? If you want to dispute the laws themselves, that's something else. However, unless you are prepared to pony up more in city taxes, it seems fine to let the District generate revenue from those who just can't resist the urge to break the law.
The interesting point for me is that this is another example of wholesale surveillance. What are the limits to photo enforcement in our society?
Posted by rshah at February 1, 2007 03:58 PM
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