Fairfield council drops surveillance car issuing parking fines
Fairfield Council called it a “parking compliance machine”, but locals knew it by another name: “war machine”.
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It would’ve been an ordinary Toyota Camry were it not for the roof mounted cameras surveilling cars to fine.
It wore no markings. People wandering the streets of Fairfield City were not made aware of what it did or who was watching.
But a Fairfield Advance investigation found the Council car was trialling a system intended to make issuing parking fines more efficient.
Now the trial is over and Fairfield City Council has confirmed they will not be using the surveillance vehicle in the near future.
“The trial has finished and the use of the Parking Compliance Vehicle has ceased at this stage,” a spokesman said.
He did not elaborate or address questions on why the trial was unsuccessful. An earlier council report simply noted “the system is not currently meeting the requirements needed”.
Fairfield City Council was not alone in trialling the technology. But locals have expressed a discomfort in the project’s secretive nature, going as far as nicknaming the car “war machine”.
The parking compliance vehicle would scan car licence plates and tag their location with GPS markings. When it revisited a site a couple of hours later, it would spot overstayed cars and issue $112 fines.
Council had hoped the system would help curb overstay parking practices.
“Council is committed to, and has an obligation to ensuring all residents shopping in our City centres can share in the thousands of parking spaces available across the City, and to minimise dangerous parking practices,” the spokesman said previously.
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