Evanston aldermen tonight are scheduled to approve purchase of two license plate recognition camera systems for the city’s parking enforcement vehicles.
The proposed $119,000 contract with Avrio RMS Group of Buffalo Grove would provide the city with Genetec AutoVu systems and computer gear to let the city more effectively enforce two-hour parking limits and spot vehicles with outstanding tickets to be booted.
Officials also hope the systems will eventually let the city dispense with physical city registration stickers and parking permits and instead use a database of license plate information to enforce those regulations.
And they anticipate the new gear will permit some reduction in parking enforcement staffing.
The proposed contract includes two years of maintenance for the units.
Avrio’s bid was the highest of three submitted for the contract, but city staff concluded the company provides the best product and best support for it, with a technician based in Chicago, as well as the greatest ability to integrate its software with external databases used for parking enforcement.
The license plate recognition cameras are also widely used by police departments for a variety of other law enforcement activities, as shown in this YouTube video posted by Genetec.
Top: A Genetec camera mounted on the roof of a police squad car.
Related document
City staff camera purchase memo
Another spending, this time
Another spending, this time for $100,000+. And the city already can't enforce parking regulations, either meters or illegal positions, with the staff, signs, and procedures in place.
What do you suppose the cost is of the parking enforcement staff, including pension and benefit packages, cost of vehicles, maintenance of them, office staff, and other amenities they require as opposed to the revenue that comes from their cost to taxpayers.
Could we outsource the whole operation to Groot?
Sounds Like a Good Investment
This sounds like a good investment that easily pay for itself in a few months while saving personal time, if the video refected the system in an accurate way.