Politics & Government

Ticketing Goes High Tech

Starting Wednesday police will have handheld digital parking ticket dispensers that can scan information with a green light, saving the town time and money.

 

will start ticketing for parking violations using handheld devices Wednesday, opting for a high-tech tool to save the town $1,000 a year as well as time.

Assistant Town Administrator Dace Castellarin demonstrated how they work in his office Monday.

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He shot the rectangular gizmo’s green light against his palm.

If his palm was a car’s inspection sticker, it would have been scanned. All the information — time, place, infraction — about the violation would have tumbled into cyberspace and settled in a database.

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The handheld would then kick out a paper ticket for the car owner.

The device can even take a photograph documenting that the silver Lexus really was parked in the handicap spot or the green Hyundai really was parked on the sidewalk.

Castellarin, who also wears the town parking clerk hat, said the images should cut down on arguments and appeals.

The town will still use its billing contractor for collections.

But instead of getting $2.50 per ticket for collecting the debt and, if necessary, reminding the ticketed ones that they owe the money, Kelley & Ryan Associates will get $1.50 per ticket.

Police issue between 1,500 and 2,000 tickets a year in Swampscott, bringing in anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000 annually, the parking clerk said.

Tickets are $20 at the low end for an overnight parking transgression and $100 at the very high end for parking in a handicap space, he said.

As of today, police dish out tickets the old-fashioned way.

They write the information with a pen on a paper ticket and plop it on the violator’s windshield.

It’s the scofflaw’s bane, seeing that revolting orange color.

Five unpaid tickets in town can get you worse — towed.

In any event, the paper tickets are backed by tissues or copies.

One for Town Hall and one for Kelley & Ryan.

With the handheld scanning an officer’s penmanship on paper won’t matter.

And there are no tissues to deliver and information to be read and entered into computers.

At some point in the future the handhelds will have a GPS function downloaded on them and have greater use in zones where parking is limited to two hours or such.

The town has five handhelds. They cost $4,345 each.

They will pay for themselves in three years, the parking clerk said.

The devices were approved by the Capital Improvement Committee and Town Meeting earlier this year.

The new method is expected to result in fewer appeals and take officers less time to issue tickets — once they get the hang of the new devices.

The time savings should be significant when they have a whole line of cars ticket, say at the beach in the summer.


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