Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/15/1547.asp

1/12/2007

Washington, DC Mayor Introduces Sweeper Ticketing
The new mayor of Washington, DC proposes to generate at least $2 million in new revenue with street sweeping cameras.

Unsatisfied by the $208 million in revenue generated by photo enforcement since 1999, Washington, DC's newly elected mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, yesterday announced that he would equip street sweepers with ticket cameras. The city Department of Public Works uses three-wheeled orange machines to pass through 4000 miles of residential streets on a weekly basis. Any car parked on the street in sweeping zones is slapped with a $30 ticket.

Fenty's proposal, entitled the "2007 Action Plan for the District of Columbia," contains the following item:

"Institute Photo Ticketing by Street Sweepers --sweepers will photograph vehicles parked in the street sweeping lane, a citation is then mailed to the violator (1st year)."

A computer owned by private vendor -- DC uses ACS for parking services -- would read the license plate numbers off of the sweeper photos and automatically mail out a parking ticket to the registered owner. The current system of using meter maids to issue these tickets already generates over $1.7 million in revenue each year.

In November, top ACS executives stepped down after admiting to ethical misconduct. In Canada, the company is standing trial for bribing police officers in return for a lucrative photo ticketing contract.