LYNN — Lynn drivers beware — the parking department is ramping up its enforcement tactics to ticket and tow more illegally-parked cars at any time of day.
The parking department, for the last five months, has been in the process of adopting an Integrated Parking System that would digitally centralize parking data from meters, parking lots, and pay-for-parking apps.
The biggest change to parking enforcement, Parking Director Robert Stillion said, will be the installation of plate readers in the department’s four cars.
Similar to technology used by police departments, the plate scanners will allow enforcement officers the ability to drive down the street, and automatically scan parked cars to determine how long they’ve been parked in the same spot, whether or not they’re registered, or whether or not the car belongs to the right person.
“Now they can get out of the street and they can scan and see if it’s been parked for one hour or two hours, they can do it electronically going up and down the streets, which is a great mechanism for enforcement,” Stillion said. “In a parking lot, now they can actually do the sweeps in a lot— it’s [the scanner is] going to say who belongs in the parking lot and who doesn’t.”
The department is currently installing scanners in two of its four vehicles. By the end of the month, Stillion said the department aims to have all of its vehicles fully equipped with scanners.
In the past, Stillion said, the department struggled to enforce resident parking at night, as walking car-to-car to check for resident parking stickers at night put parking agents in a vulnerable situation.
“We never could enforce resident parking at night. Because if you get out, walk around your car, and walk around the next, somebody’s gonna think you’re breaking into a car, or you’re doing something,” Stillion said.
The ability to quickly enforce resident parking late at night, he added, would remedy one of the department’s most frequent complaints.
“Now we have the capability of doing it 24/7 which is a big thing for enforcing resident parking. Most of our residents are complaining at night — the majority of the people who call at night, call to complain that they can’t find parking on their own street,” he said.
In addition to technological advancements, the department teamed up with Lynn Police to automatically dispatch all parking-related police calls directly to the parking department. Stillion said that the move would make it easier for parking officers to crack down on fake parking signs, or individual parking complaints.
“Now the police are going to be able to dispatch calls to us. So if they get a problem with parking, they’re going to have a dispatch that can actually transfer it over to us,” Stillion said. “We get complaints about people that put up a handicap sign in front of their house. I would say we probably get five of those a week.”
In April, Stillion said that the department will begin enforcing street sweeping dates in the downtown area — first with tickets, and the possibility of towing still on the table. While the department ramps up enforcement, Stillion said that in his ideal world, none of his employees would have to ticket anyone.
“My ideal day would be to have no commercial vehicles on the street, not to have anybody overtime parked, and to have my people riding around not tagging anyone. That would be great, but it’s never going to happen,” Stillion said.
