"He suspected this absurd-seeming pattern was due to limitations baked into the software used by parking control officers. Whatever its reason was for existing, the pattern of sequential ticket IDs, paired with parking officers likely claiming batches of ticket numbers, meant Walz was able to track their routes by plotting each parking ticket on a map as soon as it was entered into the system."
"Last year, parking officials in San Francisco issued over a million tickets within city limits, which amounted to over $100 million in fines for car owners. "I actually don't have a car, but I have plenty of friends that talk about it," says Walz. Like most costs in San Francisco, these tickets can quickly add up. For example, forgetting to move your car during the weekly street sweeping-an error my household has made more than once-will cost you $90 every time."
"The website's live updates were pulled from the city government's website and visualized on an Apple Map. "Find My Parking Cops" tracked the routes of individual parking control officers, giving them each unique visual identifiers, as well as their cadence of tickets. On Tuesday, for example, the site displayed one officer seemingly starting their shift around 10:30 am and handing out 35 tickets over the next few hours as they patrolled a neighborhood in Lower Pacific Heights."
Walz identified sequential ticket IDs and claimed batches as a software-driven pattern that allowed mapping of enforcement routes by plotting tickets when entered. A live site pulled updates from the city and visualized parking control officers on an Apple Map with unique visual identifiers and cadence information. The site displayed individual shifts, counted tickets per officer, and included a leaderboard ranking fines issued. San Francisco issued over a million parking tickets last year, totaling over $100 million in fines. Typical penalties cited include $90 for missed street sweeping, $107 for expired meters, and $108 for no residential permit.
Read at WIRED
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