Robo Parking Inspector

Darebin City Council in Victoria has issued a tender for Provision of a Licence Plate Recognition System.

The City of Darebin (Council) is seeking quotations in respect to Licence Plate Recognition System (LPR System) that allows Officers to identify vehicles which have over stayed the specified signage.

The License Plate Recognition System is vehicle mounted and consists of high speed digital cameras, integrated GPS and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software that is easily transferable between vehicles.

The system automatically captures each parked vehicles license plate and, on the second pass, detects offending vehicles that have exceeded the parking restriction or do not have the relevant permit (i.e. Residential Permits) alerting the Officer and pre populating the details into the PDA.

In other words, parking inspectors will be able to book vehicles without even getting out of the car. Depending on where the moneygrubbing parking inspectors drive, resident vehicles on empty streets will be booked for taking up parking spots nobody else needs.

Will this increase the number of tickets issue? Of course.

The HHD (handheld device) must be capable of issuing a minimum of 200 tickets before returning to base.

It will mean that cars a few minutes overtime in a relatively empty street can look forward to being booked as well. This is Council revenue raising out of control. Every other cash-strapped or greedy council will be watching this technology closely. It will certainly pay for itself many times over. What a disgrace. Councils are addicted to fines revenue and spending money before they've earned it, meaning they can never wean themselves off it.

Council's website notes:

much of Darebin’s property market is out of reach of families, even with two average wage earners.

Poor ratepayers. Let's issue them fines then! That'll show 'em.

Update: Darebin Council apparently has other fundraising techniques and may shortly be sacked.

The report is poised to be one of the most scathing assessments of a council in Victoria in decades, with more damaging revelations than the Ombudsman's 2009 report on western suburban Brimbank Council. While the subjects of the inquiry, and the ALP, have been bracing themselves for the report for months, it now appears it will not be tabled until next year. The inquiry is believed to have included investigation of allegations of bribes offered for a contentious planning application. As in Brimbank, the Ombudsman's office is also believed to have investigated the influence of senior Labor Party figures on the council. The embattled council was also recently involved in a 12-month police investigation that culminated in criminal charges against a former planning enforcement officer, who allegedly accepted bribes from brothel owners.