Parking scofflaws beware: City plans to roll out high-tech tools

Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 7, 2007 at midnight

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Denver is about to take parking enforcement to a whole new level.

As part of a proposed five-year, $20 million contract with Affiliated Computer Services Inc., the city plans to introduce new technologies aimed at boosting parking management efficiency.

Good for the taxpayer.

Bad for the parking scofflaw.

For example, parking enforcement workers soon may have vehicle-mounted cameras that can scan 19,000 license plates every four hours, compared with 1,500 using handheld devices.

Denver and Aurora police and the Colorado State Patrol are using similar electronic readers to catch lawbreakers.

"When we look for scofflaws who haven't paid their tickets, our vehicle boot agents actually type a license plate into their handheld," said Rob Duncanson, Denver's director of development engineering services. "This does it automatically, and it does it much, much quicker."

Whether the new technology catches more parking violators remains to be seen, he said.

"I don't know that we'll find any more people to give tickets to," he said. "That's not the point. But people do expect enforcement efforts."

Other proposed changes would make parking scofflaws' experiences more convenient.

The city is considering self-release boots that allow people to call a toll-free number, pay the fine over the phone, remove the boot themselves and drop it off at one of several locations.

Currently, people have to pay to remove the boot during regular business hours and then set up a meeting with a "vehicle control agent" to take it off.

"People don't like paying the ticket; I know that," Duncanson said. "But this whole, 'I have to find a way down to the court system during business hours and then a way back to get my car back' seems to be even more troublesome. If we could avoid that portion by using a new system, we're interested in doing so."

On average, it costs about $350 to remove a boot, including a $50 boot-release fee. Duncanson said the city may consider adjusting that fee in the future since parking violators would be able to remove the boot themselves.

He emphasized that the city is still negotiating the details on the boots and said they may not be part of the proposed contract, which a City Council committee will consider Wednesday.

Denver has contracted with ACS for 18 years for data warehousing, software and hardware. The current contract expires in June.

Last year, the city issued a request for proposals for parking management. Two companies responded and ACS' proposal was the "most responsive," Duncanson said.

"One of the good things that came out of (it) is that the price dropped," he said. "They were charging us $2.97 per citation handled. The price, because of competition, dropped to $1.99, so it's almost a $600,000-a-year savings."

Duncanson said the proposed changes are likely to generate more revenue, although he couldn't say by how much.

"That's not why we're doing it," he said. "It's more (about) efficiencies, trying to see if we can keep our costs down and do more of the job we'd like to be able to do."

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099

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