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Rome Police Use Twitter To Battle Illegal Parking
cartechboy writes "Illegal parking has always been a major problem in Rome. More than half of Rome's 2.7 million residents use private vehicles, and the ancient city has a staggering ratio of 70 cars per 100 residents. So many residents park, uh, creatively. But now authorities think they've found a way to fight bad parking using social media. Basically, they've asked residents to post photos of bad parking jobs to Twitter. In December, the Italian cops began encouraging smart phone users to snap pics of illegally parked cars and tweet those photos to the department's Twitter account. The new system, which was created by Raffaele Clemente, Rome's chief of traffic police, seems to be working. In the first 30 days, police received more than 1,000 complaints tweeted to their account; (one example is here). Officials were able to respond to around 740 and hand out citations."
Hey, 'your car is being towed' is trending!
#StupidShitPeopleThinkIsSmart #FAIL
What irks me is the lack of town planning for cars in European cities then the incompetent authorities act like it is all the citizens fault. I get that they have ancient medieval town centers that are almost impossible to modify - but that is no excuse for not providing adequate amounts of free to almost free just out-of-town parking and efficient cheap public transport into the centers (efficient does not mean it has to be profitable in the direct sense).
Singapore for example with so little space has pioneered high rise cheap parking for all out in the suburbs and electronic pay to enter town centers that really increased the quality of life in the inner city, or so I hear.
Don't get me started on the last century traffic lights on timers and no trigger sensors of any kind in sight even at the pedestrian crossings. Christmas lights I like to call them. The amount of petrol they must waste stopping scores of cars for no reason must be mind-boggling.
So when I park my Fiat in a parking fountain, should I send a dozen tweets sending the cops to the opposite side of the city? "The solution is dilution".
Gently reply
Since when is a license plate private? It's as public as the number on your house, and Google Street already put those online.
At risk of being put online? Don't people risk exposing their license plates every time they back out of the garage?
I think the real concern is, "This just puts millions of illegally parking individuals at risk of being publicly shamed."
The best protection for any one concerned their license plate may end up online seems pretty simple and obvious: think ahead, be considerate, and don't park like an asshole.
fnord.
To put those numbers into perspective: In 2011, 2.5 million traffic citations were filed in Rome, about 45% of those have been paid. In 2012 the number of citations dropped to 2.2 million of which 39% have been paid. (source)
A picture is often more useful than a verbal complaint when the police are evaluating whether a given parking situation actually is a violation, and the exact location where it occurred.
And for citizens armed with a cellphone camera and Twitter, it's faster for them to post a pic than to sit on the non-emergency line for several minutes, first on hold for 5 minutes, then some more minutes to describe the vehicle and the location.
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There is inferior bacteria on the interior of your posterior.
2.7 million residents, 1.9 million private vehicles and they got about 30 complaints per day? In the world of social media, that's a pretty big failure.
I don't find that staggering. What I do find staggering is that the seems to be a ratio of about 70 cars per every parking space. Rome is a place where triple parking is pretty much routine.
i dont know if its law or not in america, but more often than not you will see the plate blured out for privacy reasons on TV shows for instance
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Have you tried... not being an asshole?
The future of politics will rely on this kind of "user-generated content", like wikipedia, only in real life and everywhere
Just open up for private companies to tow illegally parked cars and make money (huge fees) from the towing and storage of the vehicles. With hundreds of such companies hunting for illegally parked cars and thus money, the streets will be clear in no time, and all the parking assholes will have learned an expensive lesson. To prevent abuse all towing must be documented using photos showing the parking offense, a copy of which are sent to the offender.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
Why not just use the non-emergency number that most police agencies have to report a parking infraction?
Because this provides photographic proof of the bad parking before they send out a meter maid.
This just puts millions of license plates at risk of being put online for the purpose of reporting a person's supposedly bad parking.
Never quite understood this whole 'privacy of license plates' thing. If I look out the window right now I can see a dozen+ license plates. If I went for a walk I'd see hundreds. How is it private if there are two of them on every car for everyone to see?
The new system, which was created by Raffaele Clemente, Rome's chief of traffic police, seems to be working.
I would argue if it were working then they wouldn't be getting many such tweets. Perfaps you forget aim is not to give more itations but fewer illegal parkings. All we can say is it might work.
America is litigation land, and they just don't want the hassle of any frivolous lawsuits.
(one of) the other concerns is Police Work as Social Media Gamification.
It's like Ender's Game - They can turn it into some kind of dehumanized gamification contest, whereas until now people had a bit of slack leeway.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
...is the future.
It's more just: No observers of an infraction, no problem, regardless of the letter of the law.
I'd just add a reputation based moderation system to supress malice.
Never quite understood this whole 'privacy of license plates' thing. If I look out the window right now I can see a dozen+ license plates. If I went for a walk I'd see hundreds. How is it private if there are two of them on every car for everyone to see?
It's not about making license plates more private, it's about limiting the places one can find instances of the plate. I wouldn't want someone to know that I was located somewhere at a certain time for whatever reason. What if I park somewhere and the guy that parks in the spot next to me does something stupid that warrants one of these images to be sent to the police department and my car happens to be visible in the picture?
I just dislike databases upon databases of our information that we can't control.
First of all, I don't think Italy have anyone seeking asylum in Russia at the moment, to avoid "enhanced interrogation" and potentially the death penalty. So much for the scary socialist state, eh?
Secondly, the point of law enforcement is to enforce the law. If citizens are informing the law enforcement officers when the law is broken, what makes that inherently socialist? Do you come from one of those neighborhoods where you don't talk to the "pigs" because they represent "the man"?
I think you just proved my point with Snowden. Governments have too much control over people as it is; we don't need to give them more. I think we agree on that. Governments only have control when we want them to. My ancestors and state fought long and hard to throw off an oppressive government and take up the mantle of sovereignty ourselves.
I come from a neighborhood where people mind their own business, because it is their own. I like my privacy and to be left alone. My neighbors like the same thing. We all agree on that. I don't stick my nose in someone else's affairs because I don't want them sticking their nose in mine.
Tattling to the police is like running and crying to Mom. The last bastion of those who can't handle that other people do things they don't like and want to punish them with the highest power they can.
Just because you don't like stereotypes doesn't mean they aren't true and the little old Italian wash woman sticking her nose in other people's business is very well known around me. Italians, on a whole, like to butt into other people's business. It is their entertainment. I know, I have four, off the boat, still Italian citizen, resident aliens in my family. They are great people, but they love gossip and getting into other people's affairs.
One Token Ring to Rule them All, One Search Engine to Find Them, One WAN to bring them in, and TCP/IP Bind them...
Never quite understood this whole 'privacy of license plates' thing. If I look out the window right now I can see a dozen+ license plates. If I went for a walk I'd see hundreds. How is it private if there are two of them on every car for everyone to see?
The word privacy has multiple definitions. In this case, the apropriate definition is ephemeral. You looking at a license plate informs one person, you, about the time and location of that plate. You posting a picture of that online creates a perment record that potentially millions of people can access.
It is the same thing as using a debit card and the clerk looking at the card number versus the POS computer making a permanent record of the card number. The first is a very small risk, the second is essentially an unbounded risk as customers of Target, Neiman-Marcus and Michaels have come to find out.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Where nearly everyone spied on everyone else. You never knew who was watching and reporting, so you assumed everyone was.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
And your point? Its called freedom. Now, you can get back on the bus.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
So wait - you think reporting a crime to the police so they can investigate it is "tattling"? What are you? 8 years old?
You see some thugs mugging an old woman - move along, none of your business. You see someone breaking into your neighbor's house - leave it alone, I'm sure they value their privacy.
I simply can't understand the mentality that says if you see someone doing something wrong you just let them carry on. Baffling.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Am I the only one chilled by the rising use of technology combined with citizens to create a self-police state? What next? Jay walking? Dogs with no leash? Spitting in public?
Will we not be satisfied until everyone has a camera, and they're pointed at everyone else, and every single infraction we all do daily is continually reported until we are all in jail? That's where it ends up, in my purposely exaggerated to prove a point scenario.
And sorry for posting as AC, but you know...tin foil hat and all that.
Never quite understood this whole 'privacy of license plates' thing. If I look out the window right now I can see a dozen+ license plates. If I went for a walk I'd see hundreds. How is it private if there are two of them on every car for everyone to see?
It's not about making license plates more private, it's about limiting the places one can find instances of the plate. I wouldn't want someone to know that I was located somewhere at a certain time for whatever reason. What if I park somewhere and the guy that parks in the spot next to me does something stupid that warrants one of these images to be sent to the police department and my car happens to be visible in the picture?
I just dislike databases upon databases of our information that we can't control.
The only way to solve your paranoia is to take public transportation. The chances that someone might take a picture that has your car in it is very good these days. Probably still slim it will happen, but since most everyone has a camera on their cell phone, yes, the chances are greater.
But lets be real. No one gives a fuck about you, no one cares where you are at, and if they did, they wouldn't need random strangers to post pics of your car online, they'd just have someone following you.
Be seeing you...
But lets be real. No one gives a fuck about you, no one cares where you are at, and if they did, they wouldn't need random strangers to post pics of your car online, they'd just have someone following you.
Do you apply this same logic to the NSA? Government abuses of power are very real, and while *you* may not be a target, someone else will be. History shows that many millions of times over.
that it was possible to park illegally in Roma. I thought every empty spot was fair game.
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
He can't help it - he has torsonic polarity syndrome.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
To make the people feel like their Police/Government is listening to them and will actually do something perhaps?
But yes, you can stumble 10 feet in almost any direction and find vehicles parked and abandoned all over Rome. What's even funnier are the motor scooters that you know have been locked to that lamentable light pole or bike rack for months and are damaged or covered in 2 inches of dust. It's like the Owner forgot all about them.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
HAHAHA. You don't understand the difference between statutory regulations and criminal law. Go look up the difference between the two and come back and have an informed discussion.
So regulations can be ignored.
By the sounds of it you are the one who needs to go and look up what a regulation is and how not following them can become a criminal offence.
The city of Rome do have a right to determine how people park, it's not a free for all. Above this, think about a persons business and having some arsehole park where customers usually sit/stand or in parking space that business has reserved (read: paid for) for his customers. Because that's where the majority of these complaints are coming from.
What are you 7 years old?
I'd say "What are you, 6 years old" but that would be an insult to six year olds, not only do they have a sense of right and wrong you seem to lack, they're also more considerate.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
> Not just Italy - Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic.
As for Hungary, here is a clue. During communism (1948-1989) there was a thing called COMECON. It decided centrally what each soviet-satellite state of Eastern-Central Europe was allowed to do economically. Complaining against silly decisions was pointless, as there were 200k soldiers, 1000 tanks, 400 warplanes and 50 nuke missiles garrisoned by the russkies, in Hungary alone. Anyhow, COMECON has decided Hungary was not allowed to produce cars for private use, but only specialize in making buses (Ikarus Corp.) All cars for office or private use had to come from imports to Hungary, which was never enough. (Czech, Poland, East Germany, Romania, the Soviet Union were all allowed to manufacture cars, but they served their own citizens first and only the balance went to Hungary, which was almost nil). Waiting list with advance payment (!) was 6 years for the junkest east german Trabant plastic car and 8-9 years for a somewhat respectable vehicle, like a russian Lada by Fiat or a czech Skoda. Even in 1989, some 80% of all travel in Hungary was by public transport and only 20% of person-kilometers were done in cars.
In 1990, communism collapsed in Hungary in an unforeseeable, quick suprise and in two years a huge number of second-third hand cars were imported from Austria, Germany, France. Suddenly cities got filled with old, worn out, polluting cars, causing traffic jams and the road pavements couldn't cope with the load. We still have a beyond terrible pothole situation and our people suddenly became so individualistic, they made a riot when the gov't tried to stop car traffic in the capital for two days, during extreme smog situation. The major of the capital city Budapest ran over and killed a 4-year old kid in 1995, which event made him even more of a pro-car fanatic and our current prime minister is a notorious speedster, who got fined multiple times by police in the neighbouring Romania (where driving fast is hyper dangerous due to almost non-existent road surfaces.)
There is now a young tram nerd, from a mega-rich family, who literally bought his way to chairmanship of BKK, the unified Budapest public transport management company. He is changing things fast for the better in the capital city (tramline renovations, new buses, GPS infodisplays, etc.), but faces huge political opposition. The government considers all transit riders left-leaning, atheist subhumans and only values the car-riding "good christian" populace. The official GOP party ideology slogan is "Three bedroom [flats], three kids, four wheels", which is supposed to represent the good thing missed under those 40 years of communist oppression.
The problem is then you end up with the a**holes being the towing companies. Plenty of issues around here where they've been caught ticketing people who actually still have time on the meter, aren't parked in the area the towing company is responsible for, etc.
I got nicked parking in a lot that had pay parking at certain hours, but also a sign saying free customer parking. It was fairly ambiguous as to whether it was always free for customers of the mall, pay after 8pm (most businesses were closed but the liquor store etc stay open later) for everyone, or if customers of non-mall businesses were allowed to pay+park after 8pm.
I just dislike databases upon databases of our information that we can't control.
One of the first steps in treating these things is to surrender to those things out of your control and become accepting of them.
Most no parking areas are determined by the need to keep roadways clear for things like emergency vehicles (fire lanes), or to keep the roadway safe for other motorists (e.g. no parking too close to a corner, intersection or bus stop).
There's certainly exceptions -- my neighborhood has no parking signs on streets to just make for a pretty neighborhood, but that's a HOA thing, something I could easily fight, and something I opted into when I moved here.
It's not a fantasy; until recently it was an established legal principle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
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He obviously meant Photoshop real life :)
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
The government is now outsourcing the reporting of crime to the public. And it's working. Hooray?