Swampscott eyes high-tech parking enforcement

SWAMPSCOTT – The Police Department may be putting away the chalk and the ticket books, as the town is looking to go high-tech with parking enforcement.The town budget requests $25,000 from Town Meeting for hand-held, automated ticketing devices that advocates said will increase an officer’s efficiency, result in fewer tickets challenged by offenders and, most importantly, save the town money.Parking Clerk and Town Accountant Dave Castellarin has advocated for the versatile devices. “It can scan an inspection sticker, pull in information on the car and take a picture.”Currently, the town issues handwritten tickets and then sends copies of them to Kelley and Ryan Associates, Inc., a company which enters all the records into a database and manages the collections process – sending out notices, collecting fines, etc., Castellarin said.The machines, which are similar to the hand-held price scanners at retail stores, basically digitize the ticketing process, explained Kelley and Ryan Software Developer Sashu Rodriguez. The device scans a car’s inspection sticker and compares it with the company’s records (the company services approximately 50 percent of the municipalities in the commonwealth, so the database includes more than just Swampscott cars, Rodriguez said) to see if the offending vehicle has been involved in any previous parking violations.If the inspection sticker has “a record,” the device displays the car’s information for the officer to verify and then paste on a new ticket. The officer prints out the ticket for the car and an electronic record is entered into the database. The device also can take a picture to illustrate the violation and attach to the record. Rodriguez added that five communities already use the devices, including Salem, and about 20 to 25 units are distributed among these cities and towns.”When you’re copying a license plate, is it a zero or (the letter) ?o’, an S or a 5?” Castellarin explained.Police Chief Ronald Madigan had a more blunt assessment of the device’s ability.”It’s obviously hard to refute a parking ticket when you’ve got a picture of your car in a handicapped space,” he said.