Sponsored by PayLock
By Police1 BrandFocus Staff
Parking enforcement is one of the most important yet least appreciated duties that a police department performs. Without effective enforcement, city streets would become chaos due to illegally parked vehicles and clogged lanes – especially during rush hours and emergency response situations. Stolen cars would be left undetected and unrecovered, while irate residents on these roadways would be inundating their elected officials with endless complaints.
PayLock’s ParkingView bundle is designed to make parking enforcement manageable, efficient and less resource-intensive than conventional enforcement approaches. ParkingView achieves this by combining relevant software, hardware and services provision into an integrated platform that handles parking rule enforcement (including citation preparation), digital permitting and automated LPR (license plate reading). It even simplifies the usage of tire immobilizing boots with “Self-Release Booting” by allowing drivers who have paid their fines to unboot their vehicles themselves.
“PayLock’s ParkingView bundle helps law enforcement agencies, municipal governments, and property owners to manage their curb space and parking supply efficiently and cost-effectively,” said Matt Silverman, PayLock’s executive vice president. “ParkingView provides the tools you need to make parking enforcement and management easier.”
Three features make the difference
ParkingView’s power is derived from its three key features.
This bundle’s parking enforcement, stolen/wanted vehicle detection, and automated citation preparation capabilities are encompassed by its ‘Easy LPR’ feature. With Easy LPR, the system’s software is able to merge vehicle-mounted LPR cameras, captured images and database querying tools with handheld citation hardware. Together, these components are able to auto-populate parking tickets, warning tags and seizure notices for law-breaking drivers. It also helps police spot stolen cars quickly and reliably.
“You really just have to drive the car, because Easy LPR does all the rest,” said Silverman. “All of the LPR and evidentiary images associated with each ticket, tag and seizure is automatically stored in a single file, making documentation straightforward and reliable. This is particularly useful in convincing guilty drivers to pay their tickets, rather than waste court resources fighting tickets.”
ParkingView’s second key feature is its Digital Permitting system. This web-based approach comes with a public portal that lets drivers apply for and then manage their parking permits online. The city gets to define which parking uses and permissions apply to specific streets and parking lots. These rules can then be factored into the specific terms of each permit, including location, permissible usages (such as resident, contractor, business owner or diplomat) and times of day/time limits.
Self-Release Booting is the third major ParkingView feature. PayLock’s SmartBoot allows law enforcement to immobilize the offending vehicle in place until the associated fined are paid. The driver can do so by calling PayLock’s 24/365 Help Center and paying by phone or going online and doing it themselves. They then punch a numeric code into the SmartBoot and their wheel is released, without the need to send an enforcement employee to help.
Benefits to parking enforcement agencies
Collectively, PayLock’s ParkingView bundle provides many benefits to parking enforcement agencies.
The first benefit of adopting ParkingView is saving money. Moving to an integrated, automated parking enforcement solution reduces the paid officer hours required to do the job. Using an automated approach also allows officers to spend their time doing more important work, such as responding to more serious crimes and investigations in the community.
ParkingView’s second benefit is efficiency. The Easy LPR platform manages parking enforcement and ticketing much more quickly and accurately than humans ever could. As well, the platform’s storing of all relevant data and imagery into each incident’s file means evidence is always at hand for investigators and prosecutors.
The third plus of ParkingView is its Digital Permitting system. Allowing parking permit holders to apply for and manage their permits online makes this process incredibly convenient and grief-free for users. It also helps parking authorities do a much better job of managing curb and parking spaces, leading to fairer enforcement and happier residents in authorized parking zones.
Finally, PayLock’s Self-Releasing Boot offers the enforcement/deterrence power of tire immobilization boots without the human personnel needed to release paid-up drivers. Not only does the SmartBoot’s self-release feature eliminate the need to dispatch staff to set vehicles free, but it also allows apprehended drivers to free their own vehicles rather than waiting for help. (This combination doesn’t happen often in law enforcement.)
A solution that make sense
Effective parking management is never going to win widespread public praise for enforcement agencies. But implementing a system like PayLock’s ParkingView will deliver tremendous efficiencies and cost-savings to these agencies nonetheless. ParkingView will help them manage all aspects of parking enforcement better than ever before, while reducing the demand on humans to do this important yet unsung task. The result is better end-to-end parking enforcement, which contributes to enhanced public safety and fewer irate phone calls to City Hall.
Visit Paylock to learn more about digital permitting.
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