Six months after aldermen approved buying the system, Evanston’s new license plate reader cameras are on duty this week catching parking ticket scofflaws.
Parking Division Manager Rickey Voss says that after a few weeks of training, parking enforcement officers started using the Jeep-mounted cameras last Friday to spot cars that should be booted for unpaid parking tickets. He says they’re now also starting to use the system to enforce two-hour parking limits.
He said results from the new system have been “good” so far, and promised to have a more detailed report available for next week’s City Council meeting.
The parking division has cameras now on two of its Jeeps, and the city has a third system on a police car. That system, which the city won free use of for a year in a national contest for police traffic enforcement efforts, was used earlier this year to spot a stolen car just days after it was installed.
Top: A driver from city contractor North Shore Towing places a Denver boot on the wheel of a car with overdue tickets in the 1600 block of Hinman Avenue this afternoon that was spotted by the new camera system mounted on a parking enforcement Jeep.
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Scofflaws
A much better revenue stream would be ticketing anyone driving with a phone in hand. Stand on any, I mean any, corner in Evanston wih a stop sign or traffic light, post an officer on the sidewalk, step out and deliver a ticket. At least 100 tickets per day, at any one corner.